Peanut butter and Jelly sandwich - adapted to ingredients from the UK

Question

Making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the UK. What is required, what is traditional, and what is optional?

Firstly: what type of bread? Must it be white, brown, wholemeal or granary? Are there any significant differences between bread in the US and UK?

Secondly: Butter, margarine, nothing. Should I butter my bread before adding other spreads? (Idiomatic combinations of peanut butter, jelly, and bread suggests nothing) I guess it is peanut butter on one slice and jelly on the other.

Thirdly: Crunchy or smooth peanut butter. These are the two types that are generally available in the UK - is it the same in the US? Is one type preferred, or is it a matter of taste?

Fourthly: Jelly. I'm aware that this is the jam-like spread (and not the gelatine-based substance) but what flavour? In my local supermarket I can find "seedless raspberry jam" and (in a section for sauces to serve with meat) "redcurrant jelly". Are either of these acceptable approximations of the concord grape jelly that I understand is traditional? How much jelly should I use: a thin scrape or layered on thickly?

Finally: Am I overthinking this?

Answer 1

Firstly: what type of bread? Must it be white, brown, wholemeal or granary? Are there any significant differences between bread in the US and UK?

• It must be robust enough to hold up against wetness of the jelly without soaking through, but not tough enough that it's a jaw workout, which would cause the ingredients to splurt out the sides.

• It must be moist enough to hold up against the stickiness of the peanut butter in your mouth, but not so wet that it folds over in your hands as you try to hold it like a soggy thin-crust New York pizza.

• It should be mild enough that nothing in the bread itself overpowers the taste of the peanut butter and jelly.

This rules out some breads—a good baguette, for instance, is too tough; Hostess white bread is too feeble and soaks through; caraway-heavy ryes are too intense; and oily garlic-herbed focaccia is right out—but there's plenty of room for variation.

An English muffin—this is what Americans call your “muffins”—works fine. A brioche roll will make PB&J into a dessert; a sandwich rye bread without caraway will make PB&J into a savory meal. A typical multigrain sandwich bread is a good choice: not bland like a white or whole wheat bread, but not too intense on its own to overpower the main course.

Secondly: Butter, margarine, nothing. Should I butter my bread before adding other spreads?

It's PEANUT BUTTER and JELLY, not PEANUT, BUTTER, and JELLY, silly.

The only reason there's no law against this is that nobody in the history of PB&J sandwiches has ever even contemplated violating such a law.

(If you're tempted to add butter, your bread is probably too dry or tough. Sandwiches around here are lubricated with mayonnaise by default, not with butter—and definitely not margarine. But nobody would ever dream of doing this with PB&J.)

Thirdly: Crunchy or smooth peanut butter. These are the two types that are generally available in the UK - is it the same in the US? Is one type preferred, or is it a matter of taste?

Matter of taste.

Note: Peanut butter is a mixture of ground peanuts and, optionally, salt. Period (full stop). Any other ingredients—like sugar, palm oil, hydrogenated dog snot, or who knows what other balderdash the private equity barons have stooped to adding—make it an abomination upon humankind. If it doesn't separate naturally, it's been desecrated by evil. (Store it upside-down to make stirring easier when you open it.)

You can use unsalted peanut butter, but salted peanut butter will make the whole thing taste stronger. You can always add salt when you stir it if you got unsalted peanut butter.

Fourthly: Jelly. I'm aware that this is the jam-like spread (and not the gelatine-based substance) but what flavour? In my local supermarket I can find "seedless raspberry jam" and (in a section for sauces to serve with meat) "redcurrant jelly". Are either of these acceptable approximations of the concord grape jelly that I understand is traditional?

Any flavo(u)r you like, although redcurrant or cranberry are probably too tart for the job. Personally I like elderberry best, but strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, and grape are all reasonable choices. Your seedless raspberry jam will do just fine!

How much jelly should I use: a thin scrape or layered on thickly?

Taste differ, but to me the important thing is for the jelly to lubricate the peanut butter and not to be a sugary fruit soup that you dropped your bread in. Too much and it will squirt out the sides. Try a gradient of a thin scrape at one end to a thicker layer at the other end to see what you like.

Finally: Am I overthinking this?

Absolutely not!

Source: an American who spent formative years subsisting on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch (and sometimes dinner).

Answer 2

Although yes, much of it is a matter of personal preference, I will try to give some constructive advice:

1. You want a ‘sandwich bread’. Something that’s cut relatively thin (1cm or less) with a relatively tight crumb (no large holes from bubbles) and not so soft that it’s going to shred if you try to smear it with your peanut butter, but not something so tough that you have to tear it off with your teeth. You also don’t want anything with too assertive of a flavor (rye with caraway, sourdough, brioche, etc). Whole wheat is fine, but a white bread is more typical. I personally like something like a cracked wheat or multigrain bread.
2. I have no idea how US bread compare to UK, but I do know that there’s a style of bread in the US that’s mass produced by injecting air into the dough rather than letting it ferment naturally, and I suspect that much of our factory made bread is of this type.
3. The amount and type of peanut butter is a personal preference. But beware of putting on too much, as it will glue your mouth together.
4. Jam / jelly is also a personal preference. The two most common in the US are grape and strawberry, but grape can be a controversial flavor (as it’s Concord grapes, not a wine or table grape). But you can use whatever variety you like. I personally like cherry jam, but will go with grape or strawberry if that’s what’s available. (In the US, jam might include skins, jelly is strained jam or just made from juice, sugar, and pectin)
5. The jelly needs to be proportional to the amount of peanut butter used, but you have to beware of too much, or it will squirt out of the back as you’re eating it.
6. Depending on the type of bread and how far ahead you’re making it, some jam will soak into the bread. This isn’t always a good thing, as softer breads will slowly dissolve and if you’ve got something hard in with it, the sandwich will bruise and you end up with the dreaded ‘purple sided sandwich’ where the jelly soaks through to the outside.
7. It might seem like a good idea to put peanut butter on both slices of bread to avoid the bruised sandwich, but this makes it so the jelly has nothing to grip to and more likely that it’s going to squirt out the back when you eat it.

You can replace the jelly with other sweet things. Honey, banana slices, chocolate sprinkles, marshmallow fluff, etc. Although that would make them no longer ‘peanut butter and jelly’. Some marmelades can work, but some are so chunky that it just makes it weird and chewy.

Likewise, you can also replace the peanut butter with other nut butters (almond, cashew, etc) so long as it’s soft enough to spread without damaging the bread.

Answer 3

Two major differences between the USA and the UK are in terms of the bread and in terms of the peanut butter. Both of these described as a foreigner (though from a British colony) in both countries and one who hasn't visited the UK for a long time (>10 years). I have no affiliation with any of the companies/brands mentioned and none of them should be taken as an endorsement of the products.

In the USA, almost all supermarket bread brands (e.g Sara Lee, Nature's Own, Pepperidge Farms, Arnold) is particularly soft and very odd flavour. As far as I can tell this is from having added lactic acid and quite a lot of sugar. I would describe the texture as similar to a pancake; if you squash it, it will not rebound and has little gluten development in it. I don't have any comparison for the taste. From my experience, in the UK, this bread would rank very low in the scale of breads available, being of worse quality (texture and flavour) than the cheapest brands.

Conversely, in the UK, supermarket bread (e.g. Hovis, Sainsbury's), is firmer, with a more defined crumb and a more yeasty taste. The texture is similar to a top-end supermarket bread in the USA, but the flavour is different; lacking the lactic-acid taste and a lot of sweetness compared to the USA.

For the PB. While you can get it without, almost all USA peanut butters contain some measure of sugar (e.g. Skippy). This is often the second ingredient on the list, and is somewhere above the 2% mark that seems to be the cut-off for special listing. As I am used to peanut butters being made from peanuts, oil and salt; this is quite sweet on its own. It seems that some UK brands have sugar included (e.g. Sainsbury's), but this is normally 3rd or 4th on the list, after oil(s). Most PB brands in the UK seemed to have only peanuts, oil(s) and salt as the ingredients.

If I were to make a PB&J in the UK, aiming to get it as similar to the ones I had in the USA as possible, I would get a sweetened PB, use strawberry jam, and use a very soft, thick-cut (toast) bread.

Answer 4

Any combination of the choices you listed (even the use of butter or margarine, apparently) would be fine and authentic and a matter of personal preference.

Answer 5

You're definitely overthinking it. There are many variations based on personal preference, but there are some traditions.

Generally when people think about PB&J sandwiches made for young children, you use very soft and cheap white bread, sometimes even with the crusts cut off. You would usually use smooth peanut butter, and jelly that's pretty close to what you call jelly in the UK, a bit thicker but no seeds or lumps of fruit, and sort of artificial flavors. When people get nostalgic for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, it's often this early childhood version.

As kids get older and don't care so much about lumpy food, you see more variety of bread with more grains, sometimes crunchy peanut butter, and more jam or preserves than jelly. Many adults don't eat PB&J anymore, but if they do, it's usually this version with more texture.

Answer 6

I think that you are very much overthinking this.

Traditional Peanut Butter and Jelly

In the United States, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich (PB&J) is a quick, easy meal, usually made for a small child (and often made by a small child). Thus a "traditional" PB&J is likely to be relatively bland (many small children don't like more complicated textures or flavors), rather sweet, and very easy to make (most American children can probably slap together a PB&J by the time they are six or seven years old).

Moreover, the PB&J is something of a "poverty food"—it is a food often associated with low-income dining. Indeed, PB&J sandwiches rose to popularity during the Great Depression as a very affordable, calorie dense food. As such, the ingredients tend to be quite inexpensive, which tends to imply more artificial flavors, neat food science tricks (like partially-hydrogenated oils to improve textures), and the liberal use of subsidized ingredients (like high fructose corn syrup).

Thus you can expect the following from a traditional PB&J:

1. Sandwich Bread: A traditional PB&J is made with something like Wonder Bread. Wonder Bread is an exemplar of a certain style of mass-produced American bread: it has little structure, a fair amount of sugar (in the form of high fructose corn syrup), and is leavened mostly chemically (e.g. with baking soda and lactic acid) and mechanically (through the action of steam as it cooks).

2. Peanut Butter: The most widely available peanut butters in the US are things like Jif and Skippy. Historically, peanut butter was made from roasted peanuts and salt---the problem with this recipe is that the solids tend to separate from the fats, which is kind of a pain. The innovation of the brands listed above is that they include partially- or fully-hydrogenated oils, which prevent the mixture from separating, and gives these brands a very smooth texture. These brands also add a fairly significant amount of sugar. While they come in "chunky" varieties, a traditional PB&J probably uses the "creamy" kind, which has been processed to the point that it has no real texture—again, small children tend not to like texture all that much.

3. Jelly (Jam): The jelly in a PB&J is likely to be something like Smucker's or Welch's grape jelly (note that what we Americans call "jelly" is probably understood in the UK as "jam"). The expectation is that the jelly will be smooth (i.e. without seeds), thick (there is likely going to be a fair amount of pectin involved), a fair amount of sugar (again, probably high fructose corn syrup), and artificial flavors.

In terms of ingredients, that's it. Keep it simple.

Preparation: The preparation is very simple: grab two slices of bread, spread peanut butter on one slice (or both—when I was a child, I figured out that if I spread peanut butter on both slices of bread, the peanut butter would protect the bread from getting soggy, so I could pack a sandwich in the morning, and it would still be appealing by lunchtime at school), spread jelly on that, and put the sandwich together. Again, this is something that a small child is expected to be able to do—the amounts of peanut butter and jelly can vary wildly, from almost none to way too much.

Theme and Variation

I've said this multiple times already, but it bears repetition: the PB&J is an American comfort food, meant to be cheap and appealing to children. You really shouldn't think too hard about it.

However, this also means that there is no need to stick too strictly to the guidelines listed above. Parents buy the ingredients they can get at the grocery store (which can vary a lot depending on local conditions and income level) and that they can expect their children to eat. When those children grow up, they make their own nostalgic version of the PB&J they remember from childhood.

Don't like grape jelly? Cool—use raspberry or blueberry or red current or blackberry or whatever you like. Prefer chunky peanut butter? Great—go for it! Or don't use peanut butter at all—try some other nut butter, like cashew or almond. Want bread with more texture? Sure! Use whatever bread you like—it is entirely up to your tastes.

Personally, my favorite version of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich is made with unsweetened chunky peanut butter (which usually means getting "organic" or "natural" peanut butter at the grocery) and apricot jam on Jewish rye.

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NB: The references to specific brands are very intentional here. Part of the nostalgia of a PB&J for most Americans is an association with very specific, inexpensive national brands. These ingredients are highly processed, and have very specific flavors and textures.

Answer 7

Firstly: what type of bread? Must it be white, brown, wholemeal or granary? Are there any significant differences between bread in the US and UK?

In general, the type of bread you would use for a sandwich where the contents of the sandwich are supposed to be the dominant flavor.

The ‘ideal’ bread is soft (baguettes are too crispy for example), moderately dry, moderately dense (you want the air bubbles to mostly be small and relatively uniform, so not something like ciabatta), and mildly flavored.

The ‘classic’ PB&J would have been made with cheap white bread.

Pre-sliced multigrain wheat will will often work well too. Rye or pumpernickel may work, but ire a bit stronger flavored than most Americans would expect. Good pita bread (sometimes called ‘Greek bread’ in the UK I believe), while not traditional, also works well in my experience.

Secondly: Butter, margarine, nothing. Should I butter my bread before adding other spreads? (Idiomatic combinations of peanut butter, jelly, and bread suggests nothing) I guess it is peanut butter on one slice and jelly on the other.

No butter, margarine, or any other such toppings. We simply don’t really butter bread for sandwiches here in the US (mayonnaise is the norm if we need to soften the bread a bit), but even if we did, a PB&J already has enough oil and water in the ingredients that the bread should not need to be buttered. You also generally should not toast the bread either (if it’s too dry it won’t do well with the moisture from the jelly).

Thirdly: Crunchy or smooth peanut butter. These are the two types that are generally available in the UK - is it the same in the US? Is one type preferred, or is it a matter of taste?

Primarily a matter of taste. You can, in theory, even substitute other nut butters for peanut butter, though based on my own experimentation the only alternative to peanut butter that works well in terms of taste is cashew butter (all the other nut butters I’ve tried were either too bland, or ended up too sweet).

Fourthly: Jelly. I'm aware that this is the jam-like spread (and not the gelatine-based substance) but what flavour? In my local supermarket I can find "seedless raspberry jam" and (in a section for sauces to serve with meat) "redcurrant jelly". Are either of these acceptable approximations of the concord grape jelly that I understand is traditional? How much jelly should I use: a thin scrape or layered on thickly?

‘Jelly’ is jam, but with the fruit pulp filtered out (so it’s less ‘chunky’). That ‘seedless’ raspberry jam is probably actually jelly, not jam.

As far as the actual choice of flavor for the jelly, it should be:

• Primarily sweet, and slightly tart, but not savory (the peanut butter is supposed to contribute the savory aspect).
• Relatively ‘bold’ in terms of flavor. Delicate flavors just don’t work as well here.
• Something you actually like.

You’re correct that grape jelly is the traditional option (though the fact that it’s concord grape jelly has less to do with taste and more to do with historical availability of grape cultivars in the US), but all kinds of other flavors work. Blueberry jelly is relatively popular around where I live. When I was a kid I often had raspberry or blackberry jelly instead, and always liked the blackberry better than the raspberry because it had a stronger flavor. These days I prefer lingonberry jam or Key lime marmalade (the first because I just love lingonberry jam, and the second because I love citrus but orange marmalade is not quite strong enough for my tastes in terms of flavor). One of my friends swears by cranberry jelly, and a couple of my friends love using sour cherry jam. I even know people who use apple butter or fig butter instead of jelly.

The only types of jelly I’ve tried on a PB&J that I would consider truly not suited for it are mint jelly and hagebuttermark (a Swabian jelly made from rose hips), and both were cases where the flavors just didn’t blend all that well with the peanut butter flavor. I would also expect tomato and pepper jellies to not work very well either for the same reasons.

Finally: Am I overthinking this?

Probably, but overthinking things on occasion is not always a bad thing.

Answer 8

From someone raise (mostly) in the United States, the answer is pretty much going to be -- do whatever is most-similar to what you are familiar with.

My mother prepared PB&J sandwiches with JIF extra-crunchy peanut butter, raspberry preserves, and "Jewish" rye bread. I would go to my friends' houses and be served store-brand smooth peanut butter (or, occasionally, honey-nut spread) with strawberry or concord grape jelly on Wonder bread and my reaction would be -- "ew, gross, this isn't PB&J." My experience of PB&J is what it is; my elementary school friends would beg to differ.

Crossing an ocean, the facts remain true. Ingredient substitution is going to depend on what a "peanut butter and jelly sandwich" means to you.

Finally: Am I overthinking this?

No, you're not over-thinking. But this is one of those situations where the dish and what it means to you -- especially any emotional connections to a specific preparation -- means that there's no one real answer.

We can tell you the differences between jelly, jam, preserves, and how these terms translate across the pond; or discuss different brands of peanut butters, preparations, and spreads. But at the end of the day, finding a cognate that means "home" to you is going to be a very intensely personal and unique experience, and what works for me won't necessarily work for you.