Kellogg’s Peanut Butter Patent

Did you know that the original peanut butter was meant to be sliced and placed in a sandwich? Well, it wasn’t very popular.

Kellogg’s original 1897 peanut butter recipe was:

– Blanche nut kernels
– Roast the kernels or boil them for 4-6 hours
– Grind / roll the kernels to a pulp
– Add 1 part water to every 2 parts pulp
– Seal the pasty pulp in cans
– Heat the cans by steam to a temperature between 100 and 115C for 1-4 hours (as heating the pulp above 115C creates a bitter taste)

This achieved the “desired consistency between soft cheese and hard cheese or dried beef”, enabling the peanut butter to be “sliced” and placed on bread.

I assume that the later addition of oil turned the sliceable peanut butter into a ‘spread” … and a commercial flop into a stunning success.

(Patent: US604493)

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