Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
The peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or PB&J, is a sandwich, popular in North America, that includes a layer of peanut butter and either jelly or jam on bread, commonly between two slices of bread, but sometimes eaten open-faced or with one slice folded over.
A 2002 survey showed the average American will have eaten 1,500 of these sandwiches before high school graduation.
History
Peanut butter was first paired with a diverse set of foods, such as pimento, nasturtium, cheese, celery, watercress, and on toasted crackers. In a Good Housekeeping article published in May 1896, a recipe "urged homemakers to use a meat grinder to make peanut butter and spread the result on bread." In June of that same year, the culinary magazine Table Talk published a "peanut butter sandwich recipe." The first reference of peanut butter paired with jelly on bread to be published in the United States was by Julia Davis Chandler in 1901 in the Boston Cooking-School Magazine of Culinary Science and Domestic Economics. In the early 1900s, this sandwich eventually moved down the class structure as the price of peanut butter dropped. It became popular with children. During World War II, it is said that both peanut butter and jelly were found on U.S. soldiers' military ration list, as claimed by the Peanut Board.
