BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?

Subject: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Helen
Date: 03 Jun 24 - 05:59 PM

Hi all,

This is a similar query to this Mudcat question: BS: Language: 'I forgot my glasses at home.' where Mudcatter meself is asking where a phrase is being used. I am interested in a geographical food question.

Over 50 years ago when I was still going to high school my Mum started making variations on PB & J, i.e. a single slice of bread topped with peanut butter and jam (here in Oz because the jelly style of fruit preserve is not as popular as jam here).

From memory she read about toppings for peanut butter in a magazine she used to buy. She started making PB & lettuce, usually as a sandwich and not open-topped, PB & marmalade, PB & banana, and I have also tried PB & sliced tomato. I love all of those variations. I've tried many times to convince my Hubby to be adventurous and eat them but he stubbornly refuses and pretends I'm not talking to him. (Husbands!)

But, recently when I watched the wonderful Frances McDormand in the movie Nomadland she was sitting eating a piece of bread topped with PB & banana slices, so now my question is how common are these PB & ... variations and where are they eaten around the world?

Or is it that Ms McDormand and I are the only two people in the world who eat PB & banana on bread?

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Jun 24 - 07:00 PM

I love peanut butter with a sliced up dill pickle on it.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Helen
Date: 03 Jun 24 - 07:52 PM

Now that's one I haven't tried, but I'll give it a go.

Hubby hates cucumber and anything related, like gherkins & dill pickles, but for some reason he will eat tzatziki dip, maybe because the cucumber is grated and drained and it is in yoghurt, so the chances of him touching PB & dill pickle even with a 10 foot pole is nil, zero, nada, zip.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 03 Jun 24 - 10:26 PM

I sometimes perpetrate a PB, cheese and Marmite sandwich, but only if Herself isn't looking.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Helen
Date: 03 Jun 24 - 10:35 PM

Marmite & cheese, maybe. PB & cheese, not sure, PB & Marmite - er, no thanks. Not even if it was the real thing, i.e. Vegemite instead! LOL

As for the PB & lettuce, I find it funny/interesting that Hubby used to eat Gado Gado salad which includes lettuce and a satay sauce made with peanuts but turns his nose up at a lettuce & PB sandwich. Maybe if it had an exotic foreign culinary name he might change his mind.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 02:13 AM

I like PB sandos with a very thin scrape of Vegemite under it (for a slight saltiness) - I also like other nut butters - & I like cheese on top!

I have also been known to put gherkin or dill pickle on top, too.

Decades ago I used to buy a PB, banana, date & tahini sando from a vegetarian lunch shop. YUM! All I need is a banana, some dates & tahini to make it again. Just might do a spot of shopping tomorrow ...

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Helen
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 03:28 AM

No way, Sandra! And here was I thinking MaJoC was just a lone weirdo! LOL

Although Vegemite is a much better option than Marmite. (Cue the Antipodes v. UK battle in 3 2 1 .... NOW!)

But the PB, banana, date & tahini sounds good.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: BobL
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 04:13 AM

Try PB and Lyle's Golden Syrup.

(Sounds odd? Think of peanut brittle)

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 04:37 AM

On occasion I like open face peanut butter with a skim of mayonnaise on it- just for that little tang.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: gillymor
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 06:05 AM

When I was a kid my I loved a PB with strawberry jam and banana on Wonderbread now I'll occasionally have it on whole wheat with just the banana but I can't have PB in the house too often because I'll demolish a jar of it in one afternoon with a spoon.
Elvis' favorite snack was said to be fried PB and banana sandwiches.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Helen
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 06:46 AM

I thought there was bacon on Elvis' favourite sandwiches as well.

PB AND strawberry jam AND banana?!! :-) I'm wondering if I'll regret asking the PB & ... question because I'll have to try all of these ideas.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 06:58 AM

> I'll demolish a jar of it in one afternoon with a spoon

I sympathise: my mouth snacks on autopilot* if I'm not careful. I can still remember the day when I'd bought a packet milk chocolate biscuits, and the first I realised I'd opened it was when I was about to throw the empty packet away. The fix at the time was to transition to plain chocolate bikkies, so I'd be more likely to notice myself eating them.

Nowadays, if I can't exercise my won't-power, I break the bikkie in half, and put half back in the packet: that way, the aftertaste will last me nearly as long, and it's the aftertaste that's most of the enjoyment for me. Herself gets dischuffed at me when she finds half a biscuit in the packet, but then she doesn't have to buy biscuits as often.

* I'll save for elsewhere the discussion of why autopilots are called "George" in the trade.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: gillymor
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 07:23 AM

Yes, Helen, PB,J and B is like having a 4th of July parade in your mouth.
Elvis adding bacon sounds about right.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 07:44 AM

MaJo - there is a Category of food called MORE & I was first aware of it in the 90s when a friend told us this story.

He was in his 50s & about 6'6" & was attending a meeting where some lovely older ladies had prepared a magnificent afternoon tea of home made cakes etc & he didn't realise he had eaten an entire serving plate of pikelets/small pancakes. The tiny little old lady he was talking to said it was lovely to see a young man with an appetite, but he was dying of embarrassment!

Bikkies & other smallish yummy stuff come under that category.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Lighter
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 09:08 AM

To answer your question directly, Helen, I've never eaten a PB & banana sandwich in the USA, nor do I know anybody who has.

But I don;t know everybody, and they don't always tell me how they eat their PB sandwiches.

I've always eaten the standard PB&J, or sometimes PB & honey (mmm!).

I seem to recall, however, that Elvis Presley used to eat the PB & banana version - often with bacon added!

I'll try one and get back to you.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: meself
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 11:36 AM

My mother used to make us PB & banana sandwiches once in a while, and I'd make my own once in a while in adulthood. In Canada.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Helen
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 12:25 PM

Oh yes, PB & honey. I forgot that one. I have a quick and simple recipe for a PB & honey fudge with rice bubbles. Delicious!

MaJoC, when I was in my late teens/early twenties I used to have the same problem with a big block of milk chocolate. Gone before I knew it. But I switched to dark chocolate with significantly less sugar content and found it a lot easier to consciously limit my portion sizes, so I realised that it was more about the sugar hit than the chocolate hit.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 01:17 PM

Yup, Helen .... esp as too much dark chocolate gives me a headache (I'm a caffeine addict under remission). My latest solution is to point at the offending snackable, say "No!" loudly to myself, and get the virtue hit from denying myself a pleasure.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 01:47 PM

Peanut butter and bacon is very good - but I don't want anything sweet on it. Peanut butter and banana is good, but my favorite is PB&J - always with two slices of bread, and often toasted.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Helen
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 02:12 PM

The most surprisingly good one for me has always been PB & lettuce. I prefer Cos to Iceberg lettuce because it has a greener flavour. I remember it was one of the first new PB sandwiches my Mum made when I was at school and it was a flavour surprise.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 03:49 PM

I just remembered: the Amish mainstay sandwich is peanut butter mixed with marshmallow creme. It's frothy and semi sweet....

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Helen
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 04:04 PM

I just did an internet search on PB & lettuce sandwich and there was a huge number of results, including combinations of PB & L with other ingredients alone or together, e.g. mayo, tomato, bacon, dill pickle or gherkin, etc. One combination called a rainbow sandwich included thin slices of carrot, lettuce, and fresh raspberries. Now that IS weird!

I'm coming to the conclusion that PB is the jack of all trades for sandwiches. It can be combined with sweet or savoury ingredients or a combination of both, kind of like the salted caramel phenomenon.

I think I'll have to set up a spreadsheet to list all the suggested combinations, and add my rankings and comments for each.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 04:30 PM

Lettuce? Banana? Bacon?
I think I'm a purist.
PB and various jams, preserves and honeys.

Far left is the world's best honey... Leatherwood

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Helen
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 05:13 PM

BillD, as a purist you would just have PB on it's own, wouldn't you? (Just joking! LOL)

Leatherwood honey is Australian, isn't it?

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 05:42 PM

I 'can' eat PB alone, but seldom...
with all those add-ons.. no

Leatherwood is Tasmanian.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: gillymor
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 07:24 PM

Ebbie, I think you're describing a nutter fluffer, or perhaps a fluffer nutter. I had a roomate who used to fry them up with bananas and they were pretty good as long as the marshmallow fluff was used sparingly.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: leeneia
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 11:03 PM

I have had PB & bacon and PB & banana. The latter left me cold.

My grocery store even has an aisle marker that says PB & J.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Helen
Date: 04 Jun 24 - 11:16 PM

I tried a small piece of PB & bacon this morning. My take on it is that the PB taste interfered with the bacon taste. It might need some more investigation though.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Jun 24 - 08:54 AM

My brother loved mustard and did try it with PB. He said it was okay.
(He ate mustard on almost anything... until he tried it in vanilla ice cream.)

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Helen
Date: 05 Jun 24 - 02:33 PM

BillD, that's just weird. :-D

I think we visited a place in Tasmania with lots of leatherwood trees.
from mhe honey has a distinctive flavour, although I haven't had it for a long time.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Jun 24 - 05:06 PM

"Nutter fluffer"? I like that.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Helen
Date: 05 Jun 24 - 05:30 PM

that was supposed to read: from memory the honey has a distinctive flavour...

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jun 24 - 06:16 PM

Idiomatic can be a non-ending source of discourse. :)

A meme just crossed my screen, lamenting English:

How can you drink a drink but not food a food?

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: JennieG
Date: 05 Jun 24 - 11:37 PM

Vegemite, cheese and lettuce sangers....used to take them to school for lunch, still enjoy it all these years later.

PB and honey, no question about it.

For the non-Ozzies, a sanger is a sandwich. So, in years gone by, was a sambo.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Helen
Date: 06 Jun 24 - 03:00 AM

JennieG, I've tried Vegemite and cheese sangers but not with lettuce. I would probably like it.

Since we are pivoting into a slightly different topic, I have to also mention my other favourite sanger is nasturtium leaves with just butter or margarine, or sometimes with cream cheese as well, on white bread (which I don't usually eat, or a wholegrain bread with a less over-the-top flavour). I can credit my Mum with that one too. Our back yard is overflowing with nasturtiums. I'm going to get out there and pick some lovely, tender young leaves. Mmmm!! Yum!!

Nasturtium leaves with PB would probably not work, but then again...maybe I should try it, given that other people are suggesting mayo or mustard with PB.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: gillymor
Date: 06 Jun 24 - 08:18 AM

My mom used to make a horseradish sauce with mayo for her roast beef and the next day she'd gross out us kids by slathering it on her peanut butter and saltines.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Jun 24 - 08:48 AM

SRS.. I knew a woman in college who related a story about her family buying a small pig they planned to have for holiday dinner.
   To avoid having anyone get too attached to it, they painted "FOOD" on its side... which led to the regular remark...

"It's time to feed FOOD."

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: gillymor
Date: 06 Jun 24 - 08:59 AM

That's probably why my cousin named her pet pig "Pork Chop". She must have had a change of heart because he died of natural causes, so I was told.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ..
From: Charmion
Date: 06 Jun 24 - 03:00 PM

Peanut butter and Cheez Whiz is a Canadian Army favourite — portable, doesn’t drip, and loaded with protein and fat, so perfect for winter in the bush. If necessary, it can even be made by a person wearing mittens. (Cheez Whiz is (was?) a more or less spreadable cheese-like substance packed in a jar. Made by the Kraft people.)

Peanut butter and sliced banana on whole-grain bread is food of the gods. This is a hill I’m willing to die on. Peanut butter with sliced apple or sliced pear (not too ripe) are good, too, but not quite as Lucullan.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Helen
Date: 06 Jun 24 - 03:20 PM

Charmion, I'm with you on that: PB & sliced banana on wholegrain bread is food of the gods!

The cream cheese I use for the nasturtium leaf sandwiches is like a thickened cream, so halfway between cream and cheese. I used to eat Cheez Whiz in my younger days but I moved more towards cream cheese instead.

And I used to love apple sandwiches, with thin slices of apple - another one on my Mum's home menu. I haven't tried it with PB. Another one for my taste testing list.

gillymor, I love horseradish sauce. Ok, mayo with horseradish on PB - I'll add that to my list for when I'm brave enough to try mayo & PB.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: gillymor
Date: 06 Jun 24 - 03:34 PM

You're not expecting are you, Helen? :)
I forgot about Red Delicious apple slices with just PB. One of my all-time favorites.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Helen
Date: 06 Jun 24 - 04:30 PM

Very funny, gillymor, since I am now officially one year away from my 70th birthday.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: gillymor
Date: 06 Jun 24 - 04:36 PM

Sorry but some of the combos listed here sound like pregnancy cravings.
Happy Birthday, at any rate.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Helen
Date: 06 Jun 24 - 05:19 PM

Gee thanks!

I agree - PB & mayo, PB & Vegemite or its lesser cousin Marmite?! I'll give it a go. I'm planning a tasting plate of the various toppings.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Joe_F
Date: 06 Jun 24 - 06:01 PM

I belong to a vanishingly small population of perverts (I have never met another one) who believe that PB does not go with anything sweet. To me, PB&J makes about as much sense as ice cream & dill pickles. My usual PB sandwich is a slice of bread with cream cheese & PB.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Helen
Date: 06 Jun 24 - 07:44 PM

BillD, I would have thought that caramel wouldn't work with salt until I tried it.

Maybe I should issue a challenge for everyone on this thread to try at least one PB & .. combination we would never think is appetising and report back here.

I'm planning to try the PB & mayo (and maybe also PB, mayo & horseradish) later today. I might even be brave enough to try PB & Vegemite, and PB & gherkin. I might do the whole smorgasbord, who knows?

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Neil D
Date: 06 Jun 24 - 08:15 PM

My wife and most of her family do something horrible with peanut butter. They mix it in a bowl with pancake syrup and eat it with a spoon. It isn't even real maple syrup.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 07 Jun 24 - 09:38 AM

... ginger marmalade on raisin bread. YUM.

... mincemeat (the Christmassy kind) on whole grain bread. Double YUM.

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: Helen
Date: 07 Jun 24 - 01:04 PM

About marmalade, what about Jaffa Cakes? Yum!

Subject: RE: BS: Geographic question: PB & ...?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 07 Jun 24 - 04:44 PM

> named her pet pig "Pork Chop"

Herself was working at a farm museum. She was sat on the edge of the pig pens, and said "Hello, pork chop" to one of the piglets (who would eventually go the way of all pork --- it was a *working farm*). One of the visitors said: "Don't say that, you'll give it a complex."

I simply don't understand some English people's soppy-itis .... they can't all be channeling Marie Antoinette, surely?