Among the wonders the Conquistadors discovered upon setting foot on the Americas was peanut butter. Well, it would have been more of a peanut paste—just roasted, mashed nuts—but the essentials were there in 1519 when Cortez and his lunatics showed up. Let’s assume the Aztecs had a long history with peanut butter because peanut butter is awesome and so are storied, long-dead ancient empires.
And now let’s jump to the 19th century. We’re jumping because even though peanuts spread around the globe after the colonization of the Americas and folks surely smashed and ate them, the public record rarely takes note of what Average Joe and Jane ate. It does take note, however, of issued patents.
In 1884, a Québécois named Marcellus Gilmore Edson received a patent for the process of milling roasted peanuts into a semi-fluid state between heated surfaces. When the goop cooled, it achieved, in Edson’s words, “a consistency like that of butter, lard, or ointment.” Yum. Continue reading