Nut Butters

Nut butters are nuts or seeds, usually roasted, ground until their own oil turns them into a soft, spreadable paste. Peanut, almond, cashew and hazelnut are the familiar ones, tahini is the sesame version, and sweet spreads add cocoa or sugar.

How to choose Nut Butters

  • Peanut butter or spread. A US jar labeled peanut butter is at least 90 percent peanuts, and its fat cannot top 55 percent. A jar of peanuts alone also qualifies. Add palm oil and it has to be sold as a peanut butter spread.
  • Smooth or crunchy. Crunchy versions have chopped roasted nuts folded into the ground paste after grinding.
  • Skins on or off. Peanut butter can be made from blanched or unblanched peanuts. A jar made with the skins left on must say unblanched right beside the name.

About Nut Butters

Nut butters are pastes made by grinding nuts or seeds, usually roasted, until their oil turns them spreadable. In a peanut butter plant, the nuts are roasted in hot air until they go from white to light brown, cooled quickly, then stripped of their skins and bitter hearts. They are ground twice, first coarse and then fine, and salt or sweetener goes in at the grinder.

Tahini follows the same idea with mature, roasted and husked sesame seeds, ground to a paste. Spreads of hazelnut and cocoa trace back to the pastes of Piedmont.

In the kitchen, nut butters do more than top toast. Shake one in its jar with soy sauce, vinegar, lime juice and ginger for a dipping sauce or stir-fry dressing. Half a cup of peanut butter also thickens a West African peanut stew.

At a glance

Made from
Peanuts, almonds, cashews, hazelnuts or seeds, usually roasted
Label terms
Peanut butter, peanut butter spread, unblanched
Unopened
Peanut butter 6 to 9 months in the pantry
Serve with
Toast, noodles, stir-fries, stews, dipping sauces

Nut Butters questions

Should you pour off the oil that rises in a jar of peanut butter?

No, stir it back in with a knife or spoon. The layer is the peanuts' own oil, and it rises because nothing in the jar holds it in the paste. Makers who want to stop that add a little hydrogenated vegetable oil as a stabilizer. Jars that use palm oil instead must be labeled peanut butter spread.

Does peanut butter need to be refrigerated once the jar is open?

Not right away. An opened jar of peanut butter stays fresh for up to three months in a cool pantry. After that, the National Peanut Board advises moving it to the refrigerator, where it keeps its quality for another three to four months. Cold also helps stop the oil from separating out again.

What is gianduja?

Gianduja is a paste of chocolate and ground roasted hazelnuts from Turin. It dates to the early 19th century, when Napoleon's blockade made cocoa scarce and costly and the city's chocolate makers stretched it with Piedmont hazelnuts. Hazelnuts were long treated as a filler, so the recipe was kept quiet for decades. The paste is the base of the gianduiotto chocolate.

Sources: US Code of Federal Regulations (21 CFR 164.150); National Peanut Board; University of Nebraska and University of Illinois Extension.

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