Peanut Butter questions: differences between Natural & No-Stir?

[Sunny Side Up]

For manymanymany years, from my teens until now, I've eaten the "natural" type of peanut butter like this http://www.smuckersnaturalpeanutbutter.com/product?gclid=CI2Y-7WNuLACFQOFnQodwQsJ6w Its ingredients are just peanuts & salt, and requires stirring to re-incorporate the oil into the PB the first time you open the jar.

Now there is a new product, also called "natural" but is technically a "peanut butter SPREAD" like this one: http://www.jif.com/Products/Details?categoryId=339&productId=954 It contains only 90% peanuts, salt, sugar, and palm oil that keeps the product from separating and requiring no stirring.

I know that I'm not going to change the type of PB my family & I use. In fact, I've learned an easy way to mix the oil back in. The first time a jar is opened it is poured into a big mixing bowl and I use my hand mixer to stir everything together. Then it is returned to the jar, and the jar is kept in the refrigerator, and doesn't need stirring again.

But friends have been getting that No Stir kind and we've been discussing the benefits/disadvantages of it. They don't think the palm oil is too bad for you since it isn't hydrogenated. I would prefer to have 100% peanuts in my sandwich and don't mind the mixing required.

What do you know about this, what do you think?

 

[Gifa]

I make my own peanut butter...

All you need is 12 ounces of raw spanish peanuts, a teaspoon of peanut oil (to coat them with before roasting), an oven to roast the peanuts, a food processor or blender, a tablespoon or so of raw sugar, and an hour of your time. I can provide a full "tutorial" if you are interested. It's a heck of a lot healthier as it has a quarter of the sugar. You can choose whatever sweetener you want to... brown sugar, honey, Agave syrup, maple syrup... but I stick with raw sugar.

Here's what my peanut butter looks like...



I don't have a problem with separation.

The peanut butters that need stirring likely have too much peanut oil added to them because they used a cheaper kind of peanut like Virginia or Valencia peanuts which have a lower oil content... Palm oil is solid at room temp... that's why it doesn't separate... and that's why they use it. Unfortunately, that is why it's technically not peanut butter.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Your home-made PB looks fantastic

Though I'm very content with the commercial PBs that list as their ingredients simply peanuts & salt. I don't think they add extra peanut oil, and certainly no extra sugar. The separation is supposed to be expected, and once it is re-stirred and refrigerated after opening it stays together until the jar is empty.

I am wondering about these new types of "no-stir" PBs now being sold. I don't buy them, but some friends have been and we're wondering just how bad/good they are with that added palm oil.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

There is no need to partially hydrogenate the palm oil (as in trans fats) because palm oil is highly saturated which is why it stays solid at room temperature and why the peanut and palm oil does not separate in the peanut butter it is incorporated in.

Whether this is good or bad is all in how you view saturated fats.

All of the edible oils and fats that I know of are composed of varying percentages of saturated, monosaturated, and polyunsaturated fats. Peanut oil has more monosaturated fat than polyunsaturated or saturated which is why it is liquid at room temperature, but is still good for high temperature cooking. In my opinion I would much rather have the "just peanuts and salt" peanut butter than the "peanuts, salt, and palm oil" spread.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooking_oil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_oil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut_oil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetable_fats_and_oils

All of this other stuff aside I would also like to point out that when it comes to food labeling in the United States (and many other nations as well) companies cannot use just any word to describe their product. There are regulations that define what a word means and how it can be used. This is why the "peanuts and salt" product can be described as "peanut butter" while the one with the palm oil added has to be called "peanut butter spread" This is the case with many, many other types of products as well. Cheese being a big one. There is cheese, then there is "cheese food product" then "processed cheese food product." All of them may look and largely taste like cheese but depending on what ingredient was added or taken away it necessarily changes the way it has to be labeled. Reading the label is important. The presence or absence of a single word can mean a change in what that product is made of.