Friday, October 02, 2009

IMPORTANT SANDWICH UPDATE!

A long time ago I posted about how to make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. You can read all about it here. I am writing you now to make an update. Somebody mentioned putting peanut butter on both slices of bread and then putting on the jelly. Yeah, I shot them down right away.

But then last month somebody brought it up again. Again I leveled my guns on them, but then they brought up a point that I hadn't considered. If you are planning on eating the sandwich right away, as you are want to do, let the jelly breath by applying it directly to the bread. However, if you are wisely planning for the future, packing away the sandwich for a quick, delicious snack later, THEN you want to apply peanut butter to both bread slices and have the jelly between them. The reason, as was pointed out to me, was that the peanut butter prevents the jelly from soaking through the bread.

Thankfully I was able to get you this information to you before it was too late.

14 comments:

Daniel said...

If ONLY You'd posted this update last weekend!

Sadly, I was forced to eat a sandwich JUST LAST WEEK who's top slice of bread was mushy from the jelly. While at the time I assumed based on your previous instructions that this was an unavoidable part of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I am now, in retrospect, bitter and saddened at the (preventable!) loss of sandwich perfection.

Still, because of this update, never again will I be forced to suffer through jelly soggy top bread again! The future is now safe!

Tim said...

Working as Designed: bringing you the hard-hitting news other blogs don't want you to hear!

BugHunter said...

It would seem to me that some of you don't take peanut butter and jelly seriously. This is not a humor piece.

Interesting point using the peanut butter as a protective coat against bread jelly absorption. However, if you place the sandwich is always sitting right side up (jelly side on top), then the jelly doesn't penetrate the bread as much. Refrigeration also deters jelly penetration.

I can't help but to feel that using this new method alters the peanut butter to jelly ratio. This is not acceptable. If my suggestions don't eliminate jelly penetration, then I think they still make a product that addresses this problem. There is an edible plastic sheet you can use between the jelly and the bread.

Joseph B. Hewitt IV said...

The purpose of the double peanut butter protective coat is meant to be used when the sandwich is in transit inside a lunch box or paper bag.

The plastic sheet does give me an idea though. What if you just layed a piece of plastic wrap on top of the jelly and then put the top slice of bread on. When you are ready to eat your sandwich, you simply remove it.

This would also be a good way to punish sandwich thieves. They wouldn't know about the plastic wrap They start to eat the stolen sandwich, get the plastic wrap caught in their throat, and then suffocate and die!

One might also be able to adjust the peanut butter amount to compensate for the two bread slice solution. I'll have to do some work in the Ronald Regan memorial sandwich lab and get back to you.

Cap'n John said...

When I went to High School we had a guy called Ben who was notorious for eating your lunch. But not your lunch per se, just your snacks or desserts. If your mum packed you a slice of cake or pie or something else delicious, chances were good that Ben would be eating it before lunchtime.

One of my friends had a snowball for his dessert. From the movie Zombieland I know you have Hostess 'snowballs' here in the U.S., but Joseph you probably know what the Aussie "snowballs" are like. For everyone else, it's a ball of marshmallow coated in chocolate, rolled in coconut, then allowed to dry. Is that the same as a U.S. snowball? I recall Woody saying he doesn't like coconut. Damn that was a funny movie.

So, my friend's snowball. He carefully cut the chocolate away from the bottom and scooped out some of the marshmallow, then poured in some curry powder. The hot stuff. Then he carefully replaced the marshmallow and chocolate, packed his lunch, and at school made sure a couple of people knew he had a 'snowball' for dessert.

Naturally Ben found out about the snowball, removed it from my friend's lunchbox, took a huge bite and got a mouthful of chocolate, coconut, marshmallow...and curry powder.

Ben left my friend alone but did go after the guy who told him about the snowball. The way Ben figured it, the other guy was really the one who had played the trick on him, because he had practically encouraged Ben to take the snowball.

Not quite as good a trick as suffocating your would-be sandwich thieves, but it was still amusing. I honestly don't recall if it cured Ben of his food-pilfering tendencies.

qnospamdnospamzAThotmail.com said...

Oh, dear. Here's one to try. Start a single slice of bread in the toaster. Take two other slices of bread, and jelly up both of 'em. When the toast slice is done, peanut-butter both its sides, for placement between the jellied slices. The PB will help the toast stay crunchy and not get soggy from the jelly.

-Retief

Melissa said...

I shared the knowledge of PBJ Sammich makin' with my son the other day.. you should have seen the look of relief and revelation when I introduced the spoon to get the jelly. It was hysterical...

Trekman27 said...

I have been using the PB on both sides as long as I can remember. Started out as a travel/soaking prevention procedure, make them that way always now. Still love to eat one nonetheless.

Phil Dirt said...

I cannot eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich unless both pieces of bread are first buttered. It gives an entirely new dimension of compexity to the combination of flavors that merge to form this delicious treat. Try it.

Joseph B. Hewitt IV said...

To quote Monty Python, "It's people like you what cause unrest!"

Eric Weller said...

Jelly soaking is not a consequence to be avoided. If your jelly is soaking all the way through your bread you're using crappy jelly, crappy bread, or maybe even....shudder...jam.

A well-made PBJ sandwich, with quality ingredients, will not soak the bread in anything less than just under 4 hours (the longest I've ever been able to leave a PBJ sandwich made but uneaten.)

@BugHunter: Refrigerating your PBJ sandwich ought to be punishable by death. (Logical. Refrigerating peanut butter is itself punishable by death and I'm not aware of any exceptions for peanut butter that has already been applied to bread (the refrigeration of which, I should point out, is punishable by a forced diet of Wonder Wheat.))

@Phil Dirt: I have to say that I was introduced to the application of butter to my PBJ sandwich at a young age and was not impressed. Oddly enough, later I was introduced to margarine on my PBJ sandwich (always on the peanut butter side) and found it addicting.

Joseph B. Hewitt IV said...

I deleted a paragraph where I explained in order to make a few sandwiches for my lunch, I would make a few extra to eat right away to avoid eating the ones I was making for lunch.

Jelly soaking through bread can also be caused by damage to the sandwich in transit. Things like a thermos or pudding can cause a lot of damage to a sandwich. I notice now days they have special sandwich tupperware containers. Kids today have it so good. Though I think I'd have trouble sticking a 8 of those into one small, brown, paper, lunch sack.

That's right. I said it! EIGHT! School work made me hungry! I was a growing boy! SHUT UP!

Anonymous said...

this sandwich give me a dud bloner

Anonymous said...

This sandwich looks delicious but I fear it may be contributing to Gobble Warming.