George Washington Carver: A National Agricultural Library Digital Exhibit

1912

National Agricultural Library

The growing popularity of peanut butter as a food has led to many inquiries regarding the methods employed in its manufacture. Peanut butter is in reality a very simple preparation, consisting merely of fresh-roasted peanuts ground finely and salted to suit the taste. Several large factories and a large number of smaller ones are now devoted to the manufacture of this product with which to supply the rapidly increasing demand. Some of the larger factories are almost models in their construction, equipment, and management, while many of the smaller establishments, which have no elaborate equipment, are turning out an excellent product.

Peanut butter was first manufactured and offered for sale as a food for invalids, but the article was soon adopted by many persons who for one reason or another, such as a preference for vegetable foods only, objected to the use of ordinary dairy butter. It soon outgrew this condition of limited use, and its development on a commercial scale has been as a general food product. It was never intended that this product should be used as a substitute for or a competitor of butter, but as a luncheon delicacy and to add variety to the diet. Peanut butter is a wholesome and nutritious food product and has become a popular article upon our markets. Last year one manufacturer used over 130 cars of shelled peanuts in the production of 6,000,000 small jars of this food. Other manufacturers used large quantities, the total consumption of peanuts for the manufacture of peanut butter alone amounting' during the year 1911 to approximately 1,000 cars of shelled goods, or 1,000,000 bushels.

In order to produce high-class peanut butter the manufacturer must employ the best of materials. On the other hand, the use of the best stock obtainable will be of little avail unless the work of converting it into a salable product is conducted in a sanitary manner.

The peanut-butter factory should be arranged and conducted along the same general lines of cleanliness as any model food-packing plant. Peanut butter should never be prepared in a room or building attached or adjacent to a peanut-cleaning establishment, as the dust incident to the cleaning of peanut injures the butter. For this reason it is not practicable for the peanut cleaners to manufacture peanut butter, or for the peanut-butter makers to operate cleaning establishments in the same building. Should both lines of business be handled by the same firms, the factories should be sufficiently separated to insure absolute cleanliness in the butter plant.

Peanut Butter