The History of Peanut Butter and Jelly
Peanut butter and jelly are staples in Americans' kitchen cupboards. But how did these family favorites get together to create the revered PB&J sandwich? Food historians do not know exactly when the very first PB&J was eaten, but it is a fairly recent phenomenon -- dating back only as far as the 1940s. The J.M. Smucker Company has compiled a timeline tracing the journey of the beloved childhood icon and its ancestors
peanut butter, jelly and bread.
3,000 BC Egyptians Bake the First Leavened Bread
Ancient Egyptians are believed to be the first to have baked leavened (raised) bread. About 3,000 B.C., they started fermenting a flour and water mixture using wild yeast.
1500 BC Peanuts Discovered
Peanut-shaped jars and pottery decorated with this famous legume have been found in South America dating back as far as 3,500 years ago. Graves of the ancient Incas discovered along the western coast of South America often contained jars filled with peanuts as food for the "afterlife".
150 BC Bread Baker's Get Organized
In Rome, the first bakers' guilds were formed and affluent Romans began insisting on the more exclusive and expensive white bread -- a preference of Europeans and English speaking people to this day. Around this same time, the first mechanical dough-mixer was invented.
14 AD Early Recipes Published
The worlds first known recipe book, Of Culinary Matters, was written by the Roman gastronome Marcus Gavius Apicius in the first century. Among others, the book includes recipes for fruit preserves.
1095 1097 Jelly and Jam "Spread" throughout Europe
The precise origin of preserved fruit remains debatable, however, jams, jellies and preserves most likely originated in the Middle East. It is believed that the soldiers returning from the First Crusade helped spread the popularity of jelly and jam throughout Europe during the Middle Ages.
1561 Orange Marmalade Created
Marmalade, a fruit jelly with shreds of citrus fruit peel, is thought to have been created in 1561 by the physician to Mary, Queen of Scots, when he mixed oranges and crushed sugar to help settle her upset stomach.
1600s Jelly Comes to America
Books on fruit spread-making were published by the late 17th century. In the United States, early New England settlers preserved fruits with honey, molasses or maple sugar. Pectin extracted from apple parings was used to thicken jellies.
1762 - 1763 The First Sandwich
John Montague (1718 - 1792), The Fourth Earl of Sandwich, was a notorious gambling man who often went from pub to pub in London on gambling marathons. To satisfy his hunger while continuing to gamble, he ordered slices of meat between two pieces of bread. In 1762, this combination became known as "the sandwich".
1890 Peanut Butter Invented
An unknown physician from St. Louis first invented peanut butter to provide his patients with an easy-to-digest, high protein food.
1897 The J.M. Smucker Company Founded
Now the nation's leading jam and jelly-maker, the Smucker Company began over 100 years ago when the founder, Jerome M. Smucker, made apple butter using an old family recipe. He sold his first products from the back of a horse-drawn wagon and hand-signed every package as his personal guarantee of quality.
1900 Soft White Bread Introduced
The sandwich became very popular in the American diet when soft white bread was introduced in the early 1900's.
1903 George Washington Carver, Father of the Peanut Industry
Dr. George Washington Carver began his peanut research at Tuskeegee Institute in Alabama. While peanut butter had already been created by then, Dr. Carver developed more than 300 other uses for peanuts and so improved peanut horticulture that he is considered by many to be the father of the peanut industry.
1914 Commercial Peanut Butters Introduced
Several dozen commercial brands of peanut butter were being marketed by 1914.
1927 The Greatest Invention
Sliced Bread
Iowa-born salesman and inventor O.F. Rohweder built a mechanical bread slicer, but the sliced loaves were sloppy looking and didn't sell. In 1928, St. Louis baker Gustav Papendick put sliced loaves in cardboard trays and wrapped them -- making sliced bread a huge success.
1940 Jams, Jellies and Preserves
There is a Difference
The Food and Drug Administration established Standards of Identity for what constitutes jam, jelly, preserves and fruit butters.
1940s PB&J Becomes Popular
Food historians do not know exactly when the peanut butter and jelly sandwich was first prepared and there have been no advertisements or mentions of PB&J before the 1940s. It is known, however, that both peanut butter and jelly were on the U.S. Military ration menus in WWII and some have suggested that the GIs added jelly to their peanut butter to make it more palatable. It was an instant hit and returning GIs made peanut butter and jelly sales soar in the U.S.
1958 Jif® Peanut Butter Introduced
In 1955, Procter & Gamble entered the peanut butter business by acquiring W.T. Young Foods in Lexington, Kentucky, makers of Big Top Peanut Butter. They introduced Jif® in 1958, which is now America's leading brand of peanut butter, and eventually opened the world's largest peanut butter plant ~ churning out 250,000 jars a day.
1968 Goober® Introduced
Smucker's® introduced Goober®, a striped peanut butter and jelly product for kids. Goober combined wholesome fresh-roasted peanuts with Smucker's Concord Grape or Strawberry Jelly to create peanut butter and jelly perfection
all in one jar.
1976 Peanut Farmer Jimmy Carter Elected President
Jimmy Carter's parents, Earl and Lillian Carter, owned a peanut farm outside the small town of Plains, Georgia. After 10 years in the military, Jimmy returned to home in 1953 to help his family run the prosperous peanut farm. In 1969 he was elected State Senator -- leading up to his victory in the 1976 Presidential election.
1993 World's Largest Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
The world's largest peanut butter and jelly sandwich measured almost 40 feet long. It contained 150 pounds of peanut butter and 50 pounds of homemade jelly and was created November 6, 1993 in Peanut, Pennsylvania.
2000 Uncrustables® Introduced
Smucker's unveiled Uncrustables®, a convenient thaw-and-serve peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the crust already removed.
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