In the last half-century, peanut butter & jelly has become an American icon- a true cultural phenomenon. Other tea rooms featured peanut butter and pimento sandwich and peanut butter on toast triangles with soda crackers. In 1904, peanut butter was introduced to the wider public at the World’s Fair in St. Louis. That's just one of many seriously nutty facts about the PB&J. In 1901, the first peanut butter and jelly sandwich recipe appeared in the Boston Cooking School Magazine of Culinary Science and Domestic Economics written by Julia Davis Chandler. Few things conjure up images of domestic idyll the way peanut butter and jelly does: the doting mother watching on as her young child tries, for the very first time, to make the sandwich and ends up smearing peanut butter all over pristine granite countertops. The surprising history of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Photo from Boston Globe newspaper. In fact, the average American will have eaten 1,500 peanut butter and jelly (PB&J) sandwiches by the time they graduate high school! Sumner was the only vendor to sell peanut butter. At the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, known as the World’s Columbian Exposition, it gained exposure and popularity. In fact, the average American will have eaten 1,500 peanut butter and jelly (PB&J) sandwiches by the time they graduate high school! Photo: Shutterstock. It's peanut butter jelly time (once you get to #8 on this list)! Still, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich we know and love today didn’t truly come to fruition until World War II. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches also rose to prominence among soldiers during WWII. History of Peanut Butter: 1880 – A St. Louis physician, Dr. Ambrose W. Straub, crushed peanuts into a paste for his geriatric patients with bad teeth. A Brief History of PB and J sandwich..Food historians have seen nothing written about the peanut butter and jelly sandwich before 1940. This study will attempt to divulge into the history of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich development across the years with special emphasis on its commercialization. As a kid, nothing warmed your heart more than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich made with love by mom or dad. What we do know is that GI's in WW 2 were given rations of both peanut butter and jelly. There once existed an America without peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Americans eat around 700 million pounds of peanut butter per year (about 3 pounds per person). It takes about 540 peanuts to make a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter. According to the book “Creamy and Crunchy: An Informal History of Peanut Butter, the All-American Food,” a concessionaire named C.H. Alright, maybe the start of school means a few more things, but my point is a lot of kids are set to consume a lot of peanut butter and jelly. Maybe you liked yours without the crust, sliced into quarters, with crunchy peanut butter instead of smooth, or strawberry jam over grape. This will entail a review of the backdrop, promotions, and the health issues linked to PB&J products. This July, Tasting Table celebrates the great state of American food and drink.. The beginning of a new school year is right around the corner, which means one thing: Countless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches will soon be made for the next nine months. The History of the Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich In the last half-century, peanut butter & jelly has become an American icon- a true cultural phenomenon. More than half of the American peanut crop goes into making peanut butter. U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter and Thomas Jefferson were peanut farmers.