Chunky and rapsberry jam....only!! And on sourdough, toasted if stale but otherwise untoasted. Also good on English muffins.

Chunky, grape jelly, soft bread

I grew up on Skippy chunky, my wife on Jif creamy. She eats more of it and the kids won’t touch PB so she wins. What I never realized was how different the brands taste. I recently bought Skippy because it was on sale and when I made her a sandwich she immediately called me out on it, without having seen the jar.

As for me, when I do have it it’s generally on a spoon.

Skippy Chunky and and any jelly on white bread. And I agree that every PB has it's own unique taste and texture.

Jif creamy or extra crunchy, depending on my mood. Grape or strawberry J, usually grape. I'll do strawberry if I feel fancy. Squishy white bread.

Never really cared for PB&J. Do love PB ... on a spoon or stuffed in celery.

Have you ever tried a PB&J with bacon? Someone recently said how good it was.

I am like many Choosy Mothers and choose Jif....but I will eat any brand, creamy or chunky....and any bread ( really good on Boston brown bread!) and any kind of jam or jelly....but for the quintessential jelly is crab apple. And it works on graham crackers and rye crisp.....and PB and bacon is a favorite!

Jif creamy, honey, wheat bread. Due to this thread, I will probably make that for lunch in a few minutes. :)

Prefer super chunky PB but will eat any kind. Currently have smooth in the cupboard as that's DH's preference- he spreads it thinly on puffed corn crackers and the chunky kind doesn't spread so well.

Prefer soft bread, but not that fussy,

Red currant jelly or blueberry jam, not that wild about strawberry or raspberry.

Creamy PB with any fruit jelly or jam on WW bread. Sometimes I like PB and bacon sandwiches. Also PB stuffed celery, on apple slices and on an English muffin with honey for breakfast.

I haven't eaten a PBJ for a long time. I do like natural chunky peanut butter on apple slices.

When I was a kid, I insisted on peanut butter sandwiches every day for school lunch, day in and day out, Monday through Friday, nine months of the year. They could be peanut butter, peanut butter and jelly, or peanut butter and butter, or even peanut butter and jelly AND butter - but they had to be peanut butter.

This lasted for nearly three school years, back in the very early 60's.

One lunch I opened up my lunch bag and gagged on the sudden stench of peanut butter.

Haven't had another peanut butter sandwich to this date.

It took me several decades to get over the smell - even as late as the mid-90's I didn't want to have anything to do with the smell when my housemate spread his own sandwiches with peanut butter.

Gradually I got over this.

I found I could eat peanuts and peanut butter in Thai food without gagging. I found that homemade Reese's peanut butter cups, made with quality peanut butter and dark chocolate was actually good.

Now I don't notice the aroma, and have even eaten good quality organic peanut butter with a spoon and nothing else. Prefer smooth, or just a mild chunk.

But I don't have any need to purchase a small jar more than once a year.

Never heard of peanut butter and onion sandwiches.

JIf creamy peanut butter with grape jelly on soft white bread. That's what I have for breakfast every morning along with a glass of cold milk. And sometimes a quick lazy lunch after five hours of working in the heat and humidity on concrete in the garden center. I have used a different jam or jelly at times. I also like just the peanut butter on a slice of toast. Oh, that melty peanut butter tastes so good.

Madonna

How are the onions prepare?

PB: Smooth almondbutter

J: Tiptree blackcurrant

Bread: Double thick whole-grain multi-grain, open face

I don't like PBJ if it's really PB, though I don't dislike either PB or J. For Annie's PB cookies, Trader Joe's organic creamy unsalted. Off a spoon, chunky, any kind that's just peanuts and thick.

I've been known to make grilled PB sandwiches. I agree with Madonna, the melty PB is yummy!

Plllog, my DD brought me a jar of almond butter back from Israel when she visited for a dear friend's wedding. It was delicious! Unfortunately the kind I've found here once that ran out isn't so good :-(

Colleen, you are the first person I know besides me that makes grilled PB&J.

I'll also eat any kind of peanut butter (except the powdered stuff, ick), and any flavor of jelly, on pretty much any kind of bread. I like peanut butter on a spoon, on toast, on crackers, on graham crackers, in cookies, in oatmeal.....

My favorite peanut butter is Koeze's Cream Nut, smooth (although it has tiny pieces of peanut in it, so it's actually kind of crunchy, if that makes sense). It's made locally, in small batches on the same old vintage machinery they've been using for decades. I think batches are something like 400 pounds and each batch is tasted separately. Ingredients on the label are Virginia peanuts and salt, that's all.

Second choice is a swing of the pendulum, that would be Peter Pan Honey Roasted. Yeah, I've never checked the label but I bet there are things I can't pronounce.

Favorite jam? Whatever I made that was good that year, although I'm inordinately fond of plum, apricot and Readinglady's pear preserves. I also eat peanut butter with Miracle Whip occasionally, and fondly remember my Aunt Bea who taught me to eat that particular delicacy. I also like peanut butter with marshmallow cream or with Nutella.

Bread? Homemade, of course, but it can be wheat, white, cinnamon, whatever, although probably not rye. My favorite is homemade maple oatmeal, with honey wheat being a close second place contender.

Annie

Colleen, that's so sad! I haven't had a bad jar of almond butter. I wonder if the local almonds are more bitter or something? Your husband works in a city, right? If there's a Jewish grocery store there, they might have the Israeli one you liked. :)

In furtherance of the original question: I will not eat jelly on bread--it has to be jam--but the bestest ever grape jelly is Randal Family Organic Concord Grape Jelly. For cooking, I like St. Dalfour fruit spreads, which aren't as lumpy as jam, but are still jammy rather than jelly, and less sweet.

I just slice the onion about 1/8 to 1/4 thick in a slab and place it on the peanut butter b/w two slices of bread or toast. Red onions are my fave, but I am not picky. I get Vidalia too if they are around ... and bacon, crispy can go on it as well...

Crunchy. Just or only peanuts Kraft or President's choice brand depends on which one is on sale. I usually have it on my bananas because I have to eat bananas for my potassium or whatever it is needs to help with cramps. I don't like bananas plain at all. No jam. can't do pectin or sugar

Best PB in the world is Santa Cruz--creamy or crunchy. Don't get the no stir variety because they've replaced some of the peanut oil with (I think) palm oil.

Oh, I forgot when I was growing up, peanut butter and banana sandwiches made with white bread. I it seems like mayonnaise was put on the one slice of bread. Of course, I could be wrong about the mayo because that was so long ago, like back in the Dark Ages. And Mom use to mix pb and honey, when she could afford the honey, to make a delicious sandwich.

Madonna

I like Jif Creamy or Crunch peanut butter, raspberry, apricot, strawberry, apple jam/jelly/preserves. And I also occasionally cook it as I would a grilled cheese sandwich - it is so good.

Loathed and refused to eat PB&J as a kid - only PB and honey for me! I preferred it on saltines. We used to make fluffernutters too, IIRC.

I only learned to appreciate it as an adult, and my fave is strawberry jam with creamy, natural style. I also learned to like PB and bacon bits.

I buy Trader Joe's organic creamy salted, but these days I usually enjoy it stirred together with some maple syrup until thick and fudgy - no bread or crackers involved.

P.S. Not sure if anyone else is familiar with this, but there's a podcast called "The Uncertain Hour" that did a series about regulations that focussed on peanut butter and the fascinating story of a grandmother who fought w/ the FDA over its regulation:

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/the-uncertain-hour/s02-1-peanut-butter-grandma-goes-washington/

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/the-uncertain-hour/s02-2-peanut-butter-wars

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/the-uncertain-hour/s02-3-peanut-butter-verdict

Here's another vote for a grilled PB&J. I usually have Smooth Skippy PB and Smucker's Mixed Fruit Jelly, but almost any others will do as long as the PB is Peanut and not another nut butter. Yummy!

I've never liked the peanut butter and jam/jelly combo -- even when I was a kid and all my schoolmates were eating it for lunch. When I got married, I discovered that my husband liked peanut butter and honey mixed together as a snack. I couldn't understand that combo either.

I like plain peanut butter with apple or banana slices, though. The closest I've come to a traditional PB&J sandwich is buttered bread with cream cheese spread on one slice and then peanut butter spread on the other slice.

We've been eating natural, unsweetened peanut butter for ages. I don't care for the traditional types like Skippy and Jif. I just don't like the sweetness nor the ultra-blended texture. The texture seems to me as though I'm eating peanut flavored Crisco.

Since my husband had to go on a low sodium diet many years ago, we only keep unsalted, unsweetened, and natural peanut butter on hand. I'm so used to it now that I don't think I'd enjoy anything else now.

This is an interesting thread because PB&J seems to be such a delight to others.

Anyone remember the 'Phase IV' sandwiches at public schools during the Carter era? They were looking for filling extra foodstuffs that kids could chow down on rather than spend another lunch ticket punch. I remember tables of PB sandwiches, halved in the school cafeteria, during lunchtime, which used to be during a lot longer lunch break than kids get now with the block scheduling ...

I am surprised there was never a Carter peanut butter, although we did have "Billy Beer"

Jif creamy for me and Jif (only!) crunchy style for the wife. Mine on white bread with Smuckers Orange Marmalade and hers typically on a spoon with spoon size dependent on whether it's a snack or a "meal". I don't ask why, tis just my job to make sure that her crunchy peanut better and Nutella don't run out...

Peanut butter and Nutella sounds like an acceptable combination, but I would use hazelnut butter instead of peanut butter.

I can't remember the last time I bought peanut butter, but I do remember that it was at a health food store and was freshly ground at the store. Peanut butter is my least favorite nut butter, and I do have almond butter in the fridge, as well as tahini, which seems somewhat similar.

That’s not a bad thought, plllog, I should see if the tiny Jewish grocery here has the good almond butter. We have a minuscule Jewish population in WA, so the only Kosher grocery is a small one next door to the only synagogue. But it’s just occurred to me that we’ll be in Melbourne in late August, and there are more Jewish groceries there. (Plus my DD lives there, so if I find it she can resupply me :-) ).

Funny story, when we came to Australia in the late 1960s, the only idea people here had of the US was what they saw on TV.

In a shop, the sales lady asked my mother, “You’re American, aren’t you? My son wants a PB & J sandwich like the kids have on the TV shows, but I have no idea how to make one. Could you please tell me?”

Now, my mother remembered that they call PB “peanut paste” here (not so much any more due to the influence of TV :-( ), so she said, forgetting that here “jelly” is what Americans call “jello”, “Well, you take two pieces of bread, put peanut paste on one, then butter and jelly on the other, and put them together.”

The look on the sales lady’s face was priceless, sheer horror :-)

First let me say that the ONLY thing that peanut butter should be used for is a PB&J sammich. Don't waste it on cookies or making some exotic Thai sauce, just put it on the bread with the jelly and get on with it. Next there are lots of peanut butter options out there, but Skippy Crunchy or Extra Crunchy is the winner for taste and texture. I've tried some of that organic crap. Fuggetabout it. And Jif is just nasty tasting; a real sour aftertaste. As far as the jelly goes, I usually buy Smuckers grape jelly and not jam, no sir, not ever.

The bread choice is superfluous. English muffins, rye bread, toasted white, it really doesn't matter. Saltine crackers will work if you've nothing else.