Presidents' Day and PB & J

About author / Christine Gable

Culinary enthusiast; kids cuisine and slow cooking; magazine recipe developer; professional writer. Her simple recipes are great for family dinners.

Some of us may have grown up eating it every day like clockwork for lunch—and never want to see it again.  Others of us are still enamored with the classic taste of that creamy peanut butter and sweet grape jelly, otherwise known as PB&J.  A taste that brings back days of slides, swings and playing tag at recess.

My mom didn’t serve up PB&J sandwiches very often, and that may be why I still like it—and yes, as a kid I thought those peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches from the cafeteria were pretty groovy too.

So how in the world does PB&J relate to President’s Day?  (That’s today, by the way.)  While today means an extra day off for some—and no mail delivery for all, I recently learned this holiday was originally two separate days set aside to commemorate the contributions of George Washington (Feb. 22) and Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12).

However, a bit of confusion started in 1968 with the Uniform Holidays Bill, which moved several holidays from their original dates to uniform Mondays, thereby creating three-day weekends for federal employees. And in 1971 President Nixon is credited with changing the original Washington’s Day to President’s Day—and encouraging the honoring of all presidents on this day—not only Washington and Lincoln.  And to make a long story short, it seems that different states have adopted different versions of Washington’s, Lincoln’s and Presidents’ Day, thereby continuing the hodgepodge of confusion that still surrounds the holiday.

And yet I can’t help but wonder if Washington and Lincoln liked PB&J? Surely they would have preferred this simple yet filling sandwich.

Was it even something that was eaten way back then?  You know how I like food history, right?  

Well, after a bit of digging—peanuts grow underground, you know—I discovered that peanut butter has been known throughout history from as early as 950 BC, and has actually been rediscovered and reinvented many times throughout history.

And jelly?  Well, jelly is all American—it has been a part of our history since the 1600s when it first came to the country.  And books on fruit spread making have been published since the 17th century.  

Yet the meeting of jelly with peanut butter was not to be for many years.

The ancient South American Indians are credited with first making and eating peanut butter.  Yet historical evidence reports a physician in St. Louis invented peanut butter in 1890 as a health food for elderly patients.  And shortly after, in 1895, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg patented the "Process of Preparing Nut Meal" using peanuts, and then served the patients at his Sanitarium peanut butter.

Even more interesting is the fact that food historians cannot point to exactly when the first PB&J sandwich was prepared.  Yet it is known that there were no mentions or advertisements before the 1940s.  But I found it intriguing to learn that both peanut butter and jelly—as separate items—were on the U.S. Military ration menus in WWII, and it is thought that the soldiers may have mixed the two to make the peanut butter tastier.

Considering that neither Washington nor Lincoln were alive when this all transpired, we can be pretty sure that neither one had the pleasure of trying a PB&J sandwich.

How about taking some time on this day to enjoy that classic favorite with your kids?

Yup, PB&J on President’s Day.

Browse the peanut butter sandwich recipes on CDKitchen.com