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[wanttobeatree]

A while back laulan and I got into quite a lengthy debate over where one must keep one's peanut butter, each thinking the other was being ridiculous, until we went and fetched our buttery jars and showed the storage instructions to each other via webcam and we discovered that YES, transatlantic differences extend even as far as peanut butter housing

Comments

[zeitheist]

I was so weirded-out by the idea of storing peanut butter in the fridge, I had to Google. Apparently, peanut butter is going to kill me? Tree, why'd you gotta go and shake the foundations of my world like this :(

[wanttobeatree]

WHY WOULD THE FOOD STANDARDS AGENCY DO THIS TO US /o\

[zeitheist]

I think the greater question is WHY WOULD PEANUT BUTTER DO THIS TO US /o\? Is it because it has to share the cupboard with the jam? Was the fancy chocolate spread bullying it?

(Seriously, though, I don't wash fruit or vegetables before I eat them - I think getting ill from peanut butter is the least of my worries)

[wanttobeatree]

I think my peanut butter hates me because I neglect it :( always I am reaching for the nutella first.

(The only veg I regularly remember to wash are spring onions because the little WASH ME label is right there on the elastic band. Everything else... a lot less regular with the washing. WE'RE ALL DOOMED)

[wanttobeatree]

Also who/what says it is going to kill us? I just google 'will peanut butter kill me' and surprisingly it is not very informative results.

[13chapters]

I just asked this question to the Magic 8 Ball, and it said YES.

[wanttobeatree]

[13chapters]

HAHAHAHA YES. \o/

[zeitheist]

I just assumed that the reason it's supposed to be refrigerated is because the cold slows the growth of bacteria? Also, googling "peanut butter bacteria" brings up a page of stories about a salmonella outbreak.

[zeitheist]

Re-reading this reply, it suddenly becomes very apparent why I failed science in school.

[elizardbits]

Right, but neither freezing nor refrigerating will kill salmonella or e coli anyway. So if your PB is contaminated, you're screwed either way.

[zeitheist]

Unless you store your peanut butter in the oven!

Which I guess you wouldn't do, unless you were trying to fashion it into a rudimentary kind of napalm. :/

[elizardbits]

*puts on FOR SCIENCE! pants*

Assuming the oily "natural" peanut butter (with no additional emulsifiers and/or preservatives) and the absence of an additional accelerant, I hereby proclaim that by my halfassed calculations, the flash point of peanut butter is ~600°F. The autoignition temperature would be significantly higher, maybe around 850°F.