Posted on: Wednesday, November 3, 2004

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Peanut butter memories

By Wanda Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

Is it just me or did peanut butter taste different in those bygone school days?

We would be served peanut butter sandwiches from time to time for a First Friday after-Mass snack at St. Anthony elementary school in Wailuku. My memory is of perfectly smooth, very pale peanut butter filling, leading me to conclude that, a) it was old-fashioned peanut butter (the kind that separates into solids and oil), and b) those cafeteria ladies were at it again, probably cutting the surplus peanut butter with all that surplus butter they were getting. It would be quite thinly spread but somehow particularly delicious.

Before the 1970s or thereabouts, school cafeterias prepared meals from scratch. After a time, many school districts switched to centralized kitchens, which would prepare heat-and-serve dishes for delivery to schools. Finally, prepared ingredients, or even fully prepared frozen or heat-and-eat dishes, became the norm.

But back in my day, cafeteria managers not only had to come up with ideas for one or two meals a day, but also had to stay within a tight budget and make use of the odd bounty sent by the U.S. government — butter, cheese, raisins, peanut butter, wheat flakes, sauerkraut, canned fruit and even canned meats.

They were required to use all the foods sent them if they wanted to participate in the surplus food program at all. Just ponder how to get kids to eat sauerkraut. The School Lunch Journal ran a recipe once for Fudge Surprise Cake, the surprise being kraut.

Peanut butter was so ubiquitous then that the files of school cafeterias are filled with recipes that sneak it into unlikely dishes. The peanut industry offered cafeteria managers recipes for baked chicken made with a crispy peanut butter coating (they mixed peanut butter into the egg-milk-bread crumb coating for the chicken). Another peanut grower recipe: meatloaf with peanut butter mixed in.

But I'm inclined to think most of the peanut butter went right where you'd expect: sandwiches and baked goods. I talked to someone recently who recalled peanut butter rolls at her school.

In the files of the School Food Services program in Honolulu, I found a recipe for yeast rolls topped with caramel peanut butter crunch. This may have been the secret of the peanut butter treats at St. Anthony: peanut butter, butter and sugar. To make these, prepare your favorite cinnamon roll dough, but instead of the usual cinnamon filling, spread rolled-out dough with a blend of 2 parts peanut butter to 1 part EACH butter and brown sugar, roll, slice, let rise until doubled and bake. While they're warm, drizzle with an icing of peanut butter, confectioner's sugar and milk.

Other peanut butter recipes found in the files included an apple peanut butter crisp tested by HECO: sliced apples topped with peanut butter pastry; and classic pan shortbread, always a school favorite that sometimes was made as peanut butter shortbread, as well.