Who doesn’t love peanut butter? Whether as an ingredient in a candy bar or some cookies, or simply eaten by the spoonful, pretty much everyone loves it in some way or another. And, of course, it provides the most important ingredient to one of America’s favorite quick and easy meals: the Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich.

So now it’s time to celebrate National Peanut Butter Day!

History of National Peanut Butter Day

Peanut butter is a culinary treat that actually most people think is a fairly modern invention, as food histories go. However, that may not be exactly the case.

I’m going to take this God-given gift of being funny, and I’m going to spread it out like peanut butter on everything I do.

Steve Harvey

Peanut butter, as it is known today, has only been around for a little over a hundred years. But, actually, there is some evidence that ancient Aztec and Inca peoples may have been grinding peanuts into a sort of paste several hundred years ago (or maybe even a few thousand years ago!).

As far as the modern world is concerned, peanut butter arrived via the United States at some time in the late 1800s. Some theories claim that, like many foods, peanut butter probably started in someone’s kitchen in their home. One popular theory suggests that a woman named Rose Davis started making peanut butter in New York at some point in the 1840s. She got the idea from her son, who had learned about something similar that was being made in Cuba at the time.

Many people credit George Washington Carver with the invention of producing peanut butter but, while he was an amazing inventor credited with more than 300 uses for peanuts and is considered the father of the peanut industry, Carver did not actually invent peanut butter.

The creation of modern peanut butter, along with its production processes, can be traced back to at least three more people. In fact, it was Canadian Marcellus Edson who patented “peanut paste” first, back in 1884, but this was created from roasted peanuts. In 1895, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, of the famed Kellogg’s cereal company, filed to patent a process using raw peanuts to create peanut butter, which was then referred to as “nut meal”. Then, in 1903, a peanut butter-making machine was patented by Dr. Ambrose Straub of St. Louis, Missouri.

As far as National Peanut Butter Day is concerned, it seems that this auspicious occasion was created many years ago, to allow peanut butter lovers to celebrate the creation of this wonderful food. And celebration is the whole purpose of the day!