The combination of peanut butter and jelly has been a part of childhood, and the edible existence of Americans, for as long as we can remember. It might be threatened by the growing population of peanut-allergic kids out there (to whom our chunky hearts go out), but for the past century the PB&J has reigned as a lunchbox staple. But how did this start? Who invented it? And when is year zero between the B.PBJ. and A.S(anno sandwichi) periods of American history? Source: Shine Yahoo - Food

1. The combination of peanut butter and jelly has been a part of childhood, and the edible
existence of Americans, for as long as we can remember. It might be threatened by the growing
population of peanut-allergic kids out there (to whom our chunky hearts go out), but for the
past century the PB&J has reigned as a lunchbox staple. But how did this start? Who invented
it? And when is year zero between the B.PBJ. and A.S(anno sandwichi) periods of American
history?
For variety, some day try making little sandwiches, or bread fingers, of three very thin layers of
bread and two of filling, one of peanut paste, whatever brand you prefer, and currant or crab-
apple jelly for the other. Well, before the PB&J could come into existence, its ingredients had to
be invented. For jelly, that happened way back in the Middle Ages, with modern-ish marmalade
and jam recipes popping up in cookbooks from the 15th century on. But peanut butter didn't
become a part of the American diet until the late 19th century, and even then only as a
relatively high-class health food-John Harvey Kellogg, the cereal guy and de-luxe health spa
entrepreneur (he was into, among other things, yogurt enemas and cooking john dory), was the
first to patent a process for manufacturing peanut butter.
From there, though, two things happened to turn the PB&J into the full-size, kid-friendly,
occasionally sloppy sandwich we know today. First, peanut butter itself changed. In 1922, a guy
named Joseph Rosefield figured out how to stop peanut butter from separating and going
rancid by turning peanut oil into a saturated fat-this might have been not the best move health-
wise, but it was a lot more convenient, and it didn't stick to the roof of your mouth as terribly as
the original stuff had. He named it Skippy. At the same time, the industry (and the American
economy in general) expanded and became more commercialized, bringing peanut butter
down into even the poorest family's price range, and manufacturers started adding more sugar
to appeal to a kiddie palate.
Then, in 1928, someone (well, two men-Otto Rohwedder and Gustav Papendick) actually
invented sliced bread, setting the bar high for all future inventions and making sandwiches
infinitely easier (and safer) for kids to make. The fix was already in at this point, but then
advertising campaigns and lobbying by peanut manufacturers to get their goop in school
cafeterias spread the PB&J gospel even farther and wider, and its place in the American food
canon was fixed.
Source: Shine Yahoo – Food