|
More than half of the peanuts
eaten in America
per year are consumed in the form
of peanut butter—7 million tons.
In 1895, an American physician,
John Harvey Kellogg, was awarded
the patent for peanut butter,
which he created not for children,
but for older Americans to help them
chew and digest the nutritious peanut.
In 1904 it was introduced
at
the St. Louis Universal Exposition.
Although peanut butter in
a jar is undoubtedly an American icon, peanuts are ground
for different purposes all over the world. In Southeast
Asia peanuts make satay sauce, in Peru Llapingachos,
and in Brazil Xinxin Galinha, an African-influenced dish
of braised chicken in peanut sauce.
Chefs can create flavors
and functions with peanut butter in the following ways:
- As a binder or thickener for cooked
sauces
- As a binder or thickener in dressings,
cold sauces or in place of Tahini
- In certain cases, as a substitute
for ground peanuts, usually using non-homogenized, unsalted
and unsweetened crunchy peanut butter
- Skimming off the unhomogenized oil
from the top of peanut butter and using it as an aromatic
oil for salad dressings, cold or warm
- Using the above oil to enhance conventional
bleached and deodorized stir-frying oils
Substituting peanut butter for the fat component (butter
or cream) in pastry recipes
|
