My Sky Color

A forty something Dad, Husband, Engineer guy living in Western Oregon. Reflections on all things in life. A few technical things and whatever else comes along.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

The Art of the P & J
Did you ever wonder why little kids want the crust cut off of their sandwiches? Its because the sandwich is made poorly. My qualifications for writting this post come from a K-12 career of never eating school lunch, and taking a P and J sandwich everyday to work about 99.7% of the time.
A good peanut butter and jelly sandwich has a few traits associated with it. First, the eater should never come close to vapor lock on dry bread. In order to avoid this the spread must go to the edge of the bread. The peanut butter needs to be spread onto the crust, not around the corner of the slice but to the extreme edges of the slice of bread. The jelly or jam should be spread on the opposing slice of bread completely to the perimeter. This way every bite has spread and no naked dry bread crust.
The second trait is the consumer should be able to taste the two distinct spreads. Peanut butter, as the name says, should contain peanuts. Super Chunk Skippy, available in a two pack at Costco is the peanutty spread of choice these last few years. I would estimate that about 2 tablespoons should be applied to one slice of the two. Strawberry or blackberry jam is the preferred J right now. The jam should cover the bread. No bread should be peaking through the complete jam covering.
When packing the subject sandwich in a lunch it helps to apply a light coating of margarine to the jam piece of bread before the jam is applied. This keeps the jam from soaking into the bread. Kids prefer this as soggy jam bread is often found offensive to the you palate. As I have advance in years and girth, I have started omitting the margarine to keep the calories and fat under control.
There are many variations that can be employed to the standard P & J. Peanut butter and lettuce works for some kids. The lettuce needs to be the heavy outer leaves so it has lots of crunch. Peanut butter and sweet pickles is an old time favorite. On weekends when the toaster is available, lightly toasted and buttered bread makes a nice sandwich. If Nacho Cheese Doritos are available they can add a nice twist to the standard P & J.
For the small consumer to handle their sandwich well it should be cut in half. Diagonally corner to corner works best due to the geometric flair. If the consumer only eats half of a sandwich, do not fold it over! This goes back to the overbearing bread concept. Those bites along the folded edge contain too much bread to keep the spread to bread ration just right.
It is a parent's duty to raise their children on a regular diet of P & J sandwiches. Hopefully this treatise will help hone the sandwich make's skills to have happly P & J consumers all around. DMP