A peanut butter and jelly sandwich consists of peanut butter and fruit preserves — jelly or jam — spread on bread. The sandwich may be open-faced, or made of a single slice of bread folded over. The sandwich is quite common and popular in North America, especially for children; a 2002 survey showed the average American will have eaten 1,500 of these sandwiches before graduating from high school. Smucker's and other companies manufacture commercial sealed crustless sandwiches made of peanut butter and jelly. There are many variations on the sandwich; for example, honey or sliced fruit can be substituted for the jelly component, e.g. a peanut butter and banana sandwich. Marshmallow fluff can also be substituted for the jelly, or added for extra flavor; this sandwich is called a "Fluffernutter". The popularity of almond butter has inspired some to transition to "almond butter and jelly" sandwiches; other nut butters are less common. Cream cheese, substituted for the peanut butter, makes a "Cream cheese and jelly" sandwich. Nutella is another possible substitute for one of the spreads. Seed butters, such as sunflower seed butter are also used as peanut butter substitutes. The jelly or jam can make bread soggy, especially when the sandwich is prepared ahead of time as part of a bag lunch. Peanut butter can be spread on both slices first, with jelly or jam separated from the bread by these hydrophobic layers, prevents this.
History
Peanut butter was originally paired with a diverse set of savory foods, such as pimento, cheese, celery, watercress, saltines and 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." The following month, the culinary magazine Table Talk published a "peanut butter sandwich" recipe. An early recipe for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich appeared in the Boston Cooking School Magazine in 1901; it called for "three very thin layers of bread and two of filling, one of peanut paste, whatever brand you prefer, and currant or crabapple jelly for the other", and called it as "so far as I know original". In the early 1900s, this sandwich was adopted down the class structure as the price of peanut butter dropped. It became popular with children with the advent of sliced bread in the 1920s, which allowed them to make their own sandwiches easily. Since World War II, both peanut butter and jelly have been found on US soldiers' military ration list. National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day occurs annually in the United States on April 2.
