Peanut Butter Jelly

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich

A peanut butter and jelly sandwich on white bread
Alternative names	PB&J
Course	Lunch or snack
Place of origin	United States
Serving temperature	Room temperature
Variations	Peanut butter and jam, other nut butters, with butter or marshmallow fluff
Food energy (per serving)	1095 kcal, 18 g fat, 3 g fiber, 59 g carbs kcal

A peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or PB&J, includes one or more layers of peanut butter and one or more layers of either jelly or jam on bread. Sometimes the sandwich is eaten open-faced or with one slice of bread folded over (effectively a "half sandwich"). If the peanut butter is not spread on each slice of bread, the sandwich will become soggy if it is left too long to sit.

Variations on the sandwich can be created by changing the jelly to honey or fruit slices and instead of peanut butter, someone may use almond butter or another nut butter. When marshmallow fluff is substituted for the jelly, the sandwich becomes a fluffernutter.

A 2002 survey showed the average American will have eaten 1,500 of these sandwiches before high school graduation.

Peanut butter was originally paired with a diverse set of foods, such as pimento, cheese, celery, watercress, and toasted crackers. In a Good Housekeeping article published in May 1896, a recipe "urged homemakers to use a meat grinder to make peanut butter and spread the result on bread." The following month, the culinary magazine Table Talk published a "peanut butter sandwich recipe. In the early 1900s, this sandwich was adopted down the class structure as the price of peanut butter dropped. It became popular with children by the 1920s as manufacturers began adding sugar to the peanut butter. Since World War II, both peanut butter and jelly were found on US soldiers' military ration list.

A peanut butter and jelly sandwich made with white bread, two tablespoons each of peanut butter and strawberry jelly, provides 27% of a person's Recommended Daily Intake of fat and 22% of their calories.