One of my most vexing kitchen tasks is stirring a new jar of natural peanut butter. You know how the natural ones have that layer of oil on the top? And then you have to stir it in, and the oil-less peanut butter below is really thick, so not only is it hard to stir, sometimes your knife slips too violently and then spills peanut oil all down the side and onto your hands. And peanut oil smell doesn’t wash off easily, so then you smell like a circus for the rest of the day. Oh, the horror.
Someone once told me a trick to make this task a little easier, and it couldn’t be simpler: store your unopened jars of peanut butter upside down. That way, all the oil is at the bottom of the jar when you open it, which makes stirring a little easier since it’s already mixed a bit. But perhaps more importantly, the oil is at the bottom, so it’s much less likely to spill over the top as you stir.
Have you heard this tip before? Do you store your peanut butter upside down?
(Image: Flickr member Dr Stephen Dann)
I just find that upside down is much less messy…
That’s a good tip.
Do you refrigerate your natural peanut butter? I am normally a rule follower, but I am not in this instance. It’s just too dang hard to stir if it’s been refrigerated! No food poisoning, yet!