Making Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches: A Primer |
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Many people say that making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is one of the easiest things to do in the kitchen. Peanut butter and jelly (PB&J) sandwiches are the perfect dish for beginning cooks to make. Here are several detailed, comprehensive steps you should take to create a delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Preparing your workstation
Many people prefer to have a clean work surface in case a countertop is dirty. Take a roll of paper towels and unroll it until one sheet of paper towel is hanging off.
Carefully tear the sheet of paper towel along the perforated line, making sure not to tear the paper towels anywhere else, until the sheet of paper towel is completely off the roll.
Set the paper towel sheet flat on top of a clean countertop after clearing any objects out of the way.
Put the roll of paper towels back from where you got it.
Getting the bread
Get a bag of pre-sliced bread. Actually, it doesn’t have to be store-bought, pre-sliced bread, but it takes a lot of work to make bread—that is beyond the scope of this guide. It also doesn’t really matter what kind of bread you choose; it’s a matter of personal preference. The simplest sandwich would use white bread. Open the bag.
Reach your hand into the bag and take out two slices of bread. This guide assumes you are making a standard two-slice sandwich, but if you are making a sandwich with more or fewer layers, then accordingly take out the correct number of slices.
Set the two slices of bread next to each other on top of the paper towel.
Close the bag back up, and put it back from where you got it. People are likely to get mad at you if you don't put things back where you got them.
Spreading the peanut butter
Take out a jar of peanut butter. The subject of chunky versus creamy has befuddled philosophers for centuries. Hopefully, you already know what kind of peanut butter you prefer to use. If you don't know, you may as well give up on this sandwich and stop reading now.
Grab hold of the jar with your right hand, and the lid with your left hand. (Of course, it may be easier for some to open it with their left hand on the jar and their right hand on the lid. It's not too important to spend much time thinking about—the sandwich should turn out the same in either case.) Turn the lid until it comes off. Depending on how tight the lid is, you might have to twist it very hard. If you know you may be too weak to open jars, be sure not to try to open jars near friends or coworkers or else they may tease you for not being able to get the lid off. (You don’t want to embarrass yourself, do you?) Also, double-check that you’re not twisting the lid the wrong way. You should be turning it counter-clockwise.
Once you get the lid off of the jar, set the lid on the countertop, and get a knife. It does not have to be a sharp knife (this is not supposed to be a dangerous project).
Dip the knife into the peanut butter, and scoop out a fair-sized dollop.
Wipe the peanut butter off of the knife onto one of the bread slices. Use the knife to spread the peanut butter onto the bread so that there is a thin, even layer. Be careful not to tear the bread with the knife. Cold peanut butter is harder than room-temperature peanut butter, so you might have to push harder with the knife to spread it, which means you’re at greater risk of tearing the bread. It may be necessary to let the peanut butter warm to room temperature before spreading it onto the bread. It is not necessary to put any peanut butter on the other slice of bread.
Set the knife down on the paper towel. Pick up the lid, and twist it clockwise on the rim of peanut butter jar so that the lid goes on to the jar.
Put the jar back from where you got it.
Applying the jelly
Get a jar of jelly.
Open the jar of jelly (see Step 10).
Get a spoon. Spoons are easier to use than knives because while peanut butter will stick to a knife, jelly won’t stick; it will just run off the knife. The spoon is nice because you can hold the jelly in the spoon. (If you wish to use a knife anyway, either use a paper towel to clean it, or get a new knife. If you use the same knife without cleaning off the peanut butter, you’ll contaminate the jelly jar by getting peanut butter in it. Even worse is if you have chunky peanut butter on the knife because then you’ll get peanut chunks in the jelly jar.)
Use the spoon to scoop jelly out of the jar. The jelly should fill the spoon and then some.
Turn the spoon upside-down over the clean slice of bread (the one without the peanut butter on it) so that the jelly clumps down onto the bread. Use the convex surface of the spoon to spread the jelly over the surface of the bread.
Set the spoon down on the paper towel. Pick up the lid, put it on the jelly jar, and twist clockwise to secure the lid onto the jar.
Place the jar back from where you got it.
Combining the two halves (This is perhaps the most complicated section.)
Pick up the slice of bread with the peanut butter, and hold it peanut-butter-side down over the jelly-covered slice.
Line the slices up such that the corners match up, and carefully lower the peanut butter slice onto the jelly one. It is vitally important that you match the slices together so that the side with the peanut butter touches against the side with the jelly. When finished, the outer faces of the sandwich should have neither peanut butter nor jelly showing.
Eating the sandwich
Get a small plate, and put the completed sandwich on it.
Get a knife, and cut the bread diagonally, from one corner to the opposite corner. Or if you want, cut across from the middle of one side to the middle of the opposite side. Or you could choose not to cut the sandwich at all.
Get a glass, get a beverage, and fill the glass with the beverage. Popular beverages include milk, pop, coffee, and of course, beer.
Eat the sandwich. Instructions on eating is not within the scope of this guide.
Please, if you have any knowledge about making PB&J sandwiches, send me hints, advice, footnotes, or any steps I missed. Perhaps I'll add it to my website.