German Tip #12: Peanut Butter
Peanut butter is not very common in Europe: That isn’t to say that you can’t get it here, you can. Sometimes, if you are lucky, you might find some JIF in the “American” section of the supermarket, but don’t be surprised if it is past its expiration date.
You might even find some in the aisle with the jams and jellies in a jar that has an American flag on it and is labeled something like Echte Amerikanische Erdnuss Butter! (translation: real (ha!) American peanut butter) However, as a true American peanut butter connoisseur, I must impress upon you that it is not real American peanut butter no matter what they try and tell you and I highly discourage you from trying it… unless you really liked that government-issued peanut butter that they served you in elementary school.
For the most part, Europeans don’t seem to appreciate peanut butter. I suppose it is a taste that most Americans acquire early in their lives. After all, according to Skippy (my personal favorite brand of peanut butter) “the average American child will eat 1,500 peanut butter sandwiches by the time he or she graduates from high school.”
For all intents and purposes, Europe’s “peanut butter” is Nutella. Like peanut butter, Nutella tastes delicious spread on bread and mothers often fix it for their children as a snack when they get home from school.
Now, I will be the first to admit that I L-O-V-E Nutella. I discovered it when I was studying in France and when I returned to America I sought it out. (Unfortunately, where I lived Nutella seemed to suffer the same fate as peanut butter does here: Every time I found a jar it was either past or very near to its expiration date) Since moving to Germany I have become quite the Nutella addict. At first I spread it on my bread, but then I gave up on the bread and now I just eat it by the spoonful out of the jar!
But no matter how much I like Nutella, it just doesn’t replace peanut butter in my book. So, back in March when my friend Susie asked if there was anything she could bring me from the States, the first thing that ran through my mind was PEANUT BUTTER! (OK, actually the first thing that I thought of was some really good Iowa beef, but since it is perishable, I made do with the second thing that crossed my mind: peanut butter.)
And boy howdy did she bring me some peanut butter! I was just expecting a regular sized jar of my requested Skippy Extra Crunchy, but instead I was surprised with two super sized jars of the stuff!
On my way home that March afternoon I bought a bag of apples, a jar of strawberry jam, and a loaf of sandwich bread and for two weeks I ate almost nothing except apples with peanut butter and peanut butter and “jelly” sandwiches.
Once my first jar was gone, I realized what a precious commodity I had in my second jar and so I vowed not to open it until I am really desperate for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich… which I am sure will happen before its expiration date of May 2006.
And for now… well, I guess it’s back to Nutella for me!
27 July 2005 at 22:10
Yeah, I think peanut butter’s still not very common here. Although I have two different jars (one smooth, one crunchy) in our kitchen. I, for one, find nothing in Nutella, although I enjoy some very unhealthy sandwich with Nusspli(the sweeter kind of Nutella) from time to time.
But my very very favorite thing to put on a sandwich is homemade “Josta”-jelly. You can’t get it anywhere because for some strange reason I have yet to find out, “Josta”-berries (who about 99% of the population have never heard of) are pretty uncommon and therefore there’s no such jelly sold. So I have to rely on my mom and damn, does she NOT disappoint me every year…
Babbling on… I just realize I should write about this on my own blog.
27 July 2005 at 23:18
We have Skippy here! The Dutch are big big peanut butter fans and they have loads of different peanut butter choices, including ones in tubes for kids etc. But, no Skippy up until last week when the shop suddenly got some! Its only smooth Skippy, no crunchy yet, but Skippy it is. Since we have had Skippy we’re eating peanut butter all the time. I even went back and bought about 10 jars just in case they never get it again. Send me your address and I shall send you some
28 July 2005 at 01:14
We have Josta berries in Connecticut, Jamie!
And Renee, I am so glad you enjoyed the first jar of peanut butter. Rest assured that I will be happy to bring you some whenever I come to Munich. I sure appreciated all the folks who brought it to me while I was living over there!
28 July 2005 at 05:23
I am so happy that in Australia we are big fans of *both* peanut butter and nutella. Sadly, I cannot have Nutella in our house, as I am wont to eat it by the spoonful from the jar. I know, disgusting (but oh so very good!)
28 July 2005 at 11:42
We have skippy in our grocery here as well, although the jars are a ridiculously small size (smaller than those small jars of nutella that come in the glasses you can later drink out of once they’ve been emptied and wash). I’m a creamy girl, however (although they do have both).
28 July 2005 at 15:29
A country without Peanut Butter? What do mothers feed their children?! I didn’t realize that Peanut Butter was an American thing. You learn something new every day.
28 July 2005 at 15:41
Call me mad, but you should try to put Nutella on on “toast” and peanutbutter (pindakas in dutch i guess) on another “toast” and build a sandwich with these. That tastes a bit like a candybar (i think it was Snickers or something) and is so damn unhealthy sweet.
By the way, my grandfather can´t even take the smell of peanutbutter, ´cause as a P.O.W. he had plenty of peanutbutter sandwiches. When i tried to eat some in his kitchen when i was younger, he kicked me out of it
By now, im buying peanutbutter at walmart, the crunchy stuff, its all right.
Its true, german “real american” peanztbutter isnt the same at all, i tried american and dutch pindakas, they tasted much more “real”
Maybe you can´t get that stuff in germany because people doesn´t accept “gen-food” (denglish?)
The Butterfinger candybar weren´t really a big seller over here, too.
Im lovin´ Mountain Dew, but that crappy stuff im gettin on gas stations over here, semm to have another taste, also.