MARKETING PEANUTS 61 
PEANUT BUTTER 
Peanut butter first came into use a little over 20 years ago as a 
food for invalids. Now it is recognized as a staple article of food, and 
an increasingly large number of factories are necessary to supply the 
demand. The food value of peanut butter is very high. 21 
Peanut butter contains only the ground kernels of roasted, blanched 
peanuts, with the addition of 1 to 4 per cent of salt. High-grade 
peanut butter retains its sweetness and flavor many months in an 
air-tight package. Large quantities are used in the manufacture of 
sandwiches, candy, and bakery products, but its chief use is probably 
in the home. 22 
To obtain a smooth, fine-flavored peanut butter, a blend of the 
Spanish and Virginia types is employed. Spanish peanuts contain 
an average of 50 per cent oil; the Virginia type peanuts possess only 
42 per cent of oil. 23 Virginia peanuts alone make a butter that is too 
dry, and a butter made from Spanish alone is too oily. Used in com- 
bination, the drier Virginias absorb the excess oil of the Spanish. 
There is no uniformity in the proportions used of the two varieties. 
Some manufacturers employ a 50-50 combination, others prefer one- 
third Spanish to two-thirds Virginias, or vice versa, depending upon 
whether they want a dry or oily product. Some manufacturers 
substitute shelled Runners for shelled Virginias in their peanut- 
butter formulas. 
The peanut-butter factories buy shelled goods only, usually raw, 
of the grades necessary to produce the quality of peanut butter 
that they manufacture. Some peanut-butter manufacturers pur- 
chase shelled peanuts which have already been roasted and blanched. 
The same thing is true of some salters and candy manufacturers, 
except that the latter firms buy " white roast 7 ' peanuts, whereas 
concerns wanting them for butter usually, get " brown roast" goods. 
When bought in the raw state, efforts are made in the better class 
of factories to remove all foreign material from the peanuts by means 
of an automatic cleaner or stoner, after which they are roasted in 
cylindrical roasters and cooled. When used exclusively for shelled 
peanuts, manufacturers prefer an unperforated cylinder, with a 
very smooth interior surface. The peanuts are then ready for 
blanching in split-nut blanchers, in which the revolving brushes are 
placed against corrugated plates, thus splitting the peanuts in half 
and removing the seed-germs or hearts, as well as the thin skins. 
The presence of any considerable quantity of hearts in peanut butter 
is believed to promote premature rancidity. A specky appearance 
results if the skins are ground with the meats, and they give a slightly 
bitter taste to the butter. Badly shriveled peanuts will not blanch 
properly; consequently a butter containing many bad shrivels will 
be both bitter and spotted in color. The skins, which contain from 
20 to 30 per cent of oil, 24 and the germs may be sold for stock food ; 
for oil, or for soap stock. In the better class of factories, before 
being ground, the peanuts pass over an endless-belt picking table 
21 For calorie value of peanuts and other foods, see U. S. Office of Experiment Stations Bulletin 28, revised, 
The Chemical Composition of American Food Materials, by W. O. Atwater'and A. P. Bryant. 
22 Recipes for the use of peanut butter in the home can be found in U. S. Department of Agriculture 
Circular 128, The Manufacture and Use of Peanut Butter, by H. C Thompson, pp. 14-16. 
"Thompson, H.C, and H.S.Bailey. Peanut oil. In U. S. Dept. Agr. Farmers' Bui. 751, p. 10. 1920.. 
(Revised.) 
24 Reed, J. B. By-products from crushing peanuts. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 1096, p. 4. 1922. 
