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Comment by logdahl | Hacker News Reader

Sorry, I don't understand why you would be spinning the bottle. Someone care to explain? :)

I believe European and US peanut butter is rather different.

European peanut butter is solid, with the consistency of refrigerated butter, or of fudge.

US peanut butter is a thick liquid. Over time, it separates and you get peanut oil on the surface. That oil is unpleasant, so this machine can help mix it back in.

Hence, Europeans wouldn't see the need for this, because they have never witnessed the problem this machine is intended to solve.

afaik they're basically the same thing. The need to stir comes from peanut butter that is literally nothing other than minced peanuts. Brands like Jif and the such add a bit of palm oil, salt, and whatever else which I guess helps to stabilize the mixture and make oil separation less likely. "pure" peanut butter like the kind the author likes here is available just the same in the UK with exactly the same problem!

You can get both kinds here, but the emulsified kind is more common. This has been slowly changing with additive-free food popularity and therefor 100% peanut-butter.

The main difference in peanut butter isn’t about being European or American actually—it’s about the recipe. Some brands add extra oil, like palm oil, to keep it from separating (Skippy (US) and Calvé (EU), for instance). Without it, peanut butter can separate, leaving oil on top.

I believe that they actually remove the peanut oil as it can fetch more money sold as cooking oil. They substitute an inexpensive oil that they also hydrogenate. The hydrogenation is what keeps the oil from separating.

Adding back the crappiest oil they can find… of course.

Do you have a source for this? If true, what a stupid way to make food.

Peanut oil is also sold as an industrial lubricant. So they inject crap like palm oil and then use stuff like cane sugar to mask the taste. It is a CRIME.

The moral of the story is: Accept only peanuts and salt as ingredients; all else is duplicitous garbage.

You seem unfamiliar with the great American tradition of inventing things to solve problems for the fun of it.

Please view these commercials for reference:

1. https://youtu.be/FqWgTM4di4s, remixed version: https://youtu.be/-gLOALCvlMI

2. https://youtu.be/4rBAmrZX5XQ

UK here. Yes, our peanut butter is typically solid and has similar consistency even after a couple months in the larder (never even thought about using the fridge).

Tahini on the other hand separates very quickly into oil+solid so perhaps could also do with a spinner

That’s probably because your peanut butter isn’t just peanuts. If you’re buying Skippy or whatever the additives give it a stable textur. But if you buy pure (aka “natural”) peanut butter you’ll see separation, just like any other nut butter, including tahini

The 100% peanuts varieties separate out a bit due to the oil in the nuts. Most UK supermarkets have an own brand 100% nut option that is usually a good deal compared to the branded stuff like Whole Earth (which has something added/removed to avoid having to stir it I guess).

Same goes for Tahini, you can get bottles that never separate, or jar of 100% sesame seeds that needs a stir.

Most Americans actually buy peanut butter that doesn't need mixing, too... brands like JIF mix oils into the peanut butter which keep it from separating.

"All natural peanut butter", which is what a lot of us like and what the OP is talking about in their article, is made with just peanuts blended, and the oil separates after a while on the shelf.

This European buys supermarket own brand peanut butter that is just peanuts and a little salt. It never seems to separate, has a three month shelf life once opened, and doesn't say it needs refrigeration.

It processed in Holland.

Why is it different from the US?

If only there was a blog post that you could read just the first paragraph of to find the answer to your question…

From TFA:

> I love peanut butter. I also hate mixing it. There are many products available to mix peanut butter for you, but I wanted my own design that took no effort to use. I'm looking for a "set it and forget it" solution. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, many natural peanut butters are not homogeneous at all times. The oil and the nutty material separate, and thus require mixing to return it to buttery consistency.

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