Alexandra Brown
asked:
Currently reading 'Shadows of the Workhouse' I've just read a bit about spreading peanut butter - I wasn't aware of peanut butter being known in Britain until fairly recently ie. it came over from USA. I first tasted it (and loved it immediately) in the early 60s when I lived amongst Americans in West Africa. Can anyone put me right on this? I'd love the author Jennifer Worth to comment.
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Barbara
Unfortunately, Jennifer Worth died in 2011.
Tim Kimball
as a young u s army soldier on a wonderful delay on route [free vacation] i remember peanut butter offered for breakfast at a london b&b in spring 1966. it was considered 'savory. ' matching peanut butter with jam was considered absurd. it seemed widespread [ha!] by then, tho not pb&j.
jane's story does not do ms. worth credit, horrible imaging presented as fact. the workhouse system WAS horrible but worth's story borders on pornographic and certainly did NOT come from poor jane.
jane's story does not do ms. worth credit, horrible imaging presented as fact. the workhouse system WAS horrible but worth's story borders on pornographic and certainly did NOT come from poor jane.
^
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-t... has an interesting and well written article on the American history of peanut butter.
My hunch is that calorie-rich peanut butter may have been first shipped from the USA to Britain during the Second World War, as part of the war effort. US food shipments were crucial to Allied success. Contact the Imperial War Museum in London. IWM London (Telephone: +44 (0)20 7416 5000). They'll have someone who, unlike me, knows for sure.
I own a copy of a British book, published in 1951, the year of the Festival of Britain. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... which contains (amongst many other recipes), fifteen(!) different recipes for sandwiches containing ‘pea-nut’ butter. Well worth hunting out if you’re ever out of ideas for sandwich fillings.
My hunch is that calorie-rich peanut butter may have been first shipped from the USA to Britain during the Second World War, as part of the war effort. US food shipments were crucial to Allied success. Contact the Imperial War Museum in London. IWM London (Telephone: +44 (0)20 7416 5000). They'll have someone who, unlike me, knows for sure.
I own a copy of a British book, published in 1951, the year of the Festival of Britain. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... which contains (amongst many other recipes), fifteen(!) different recipes for sandwiches containing ‘pea-nut’ butter. Well worth hunting out if you’re ever out of ideas for sandwich fillings.
Lisa Harrington
I am still trying to figure out if your question was a joke or was intended to be serious.
Joan Eppehimer
I remember being able to buy peanut butter when I lived in England in 1976/77. It did not appear to be very popular though.
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