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Comment by hathawsh | Hacker News Reader

Some Adams trivia:

- It's owned by Smucker's. I normally dislike anything from Smucker's, but Adams is a nice exception.

- If you get the giant jar from Costco, the oil separation is a significant issue. There's a simple solution: dump it all into a big mixing bowl (with the help of a silicone spatula), mix it, and pour it back into the jar. I did it last time I bought it and it was worth the 10 minutes I spent.

- Once it's mixed well, if you give it a quick stir every time you use it, the oil doesn't separate again.

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The other hack for jars of any size is to store them upside down until you open them for the first time. Then when you open the jar, you get to stir the PB and the oil naturally comes up from the bottom instead of delicately trying to force the oil down without spilling it over the sides.

I've taken to using a using an electric hand mixer directly in the jar. It gets the peanut butter thoroughly mixed very quickly. As one might expect, it can go wrong spectacularly if you aren't careful.

It's owned by Smucker, but not developed by them. It originated early in the 20th century in Tacoma, WA and was purchased in the late 1990s by Smucker.

Just because this has been bugging me for years:

Why are all zero-sugar-added PBs not homogenized? It seems unlikely to me that sugar is the primary homogenizing agent in e.g. Skippy. I dread opening a new jar of peanut butter to the point where I will look for other things...

I think what keeps homogenized peanut butter homogenized is partially-hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is apparently also not good for you. Adams Natural, for instance (they also make a homogenized version) contains peanuts and (optionally) salt.

Oh fun hack. Store the peanut butter container closed on its side in the fridge. More surface area seems to help the separation issue and the fridge solidifies it so it has less chance to drip or leak.

All natural pb's I've tried don't separate if you store it in the fridge (but importantly, only after the initial stir)

True, but its not as tasty cold. I guess that is not a problem when making sandwiches for lunch in the morning, if that is your main use case.

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