Shawn Brown, age 10, of Louisville, Ky., for his question:
HOW IS PEANUT BUTTER PROCESSED?
Commercial producers of peanut butter have their own secret formulas and ways of putting that favorite spread into jars. But, basically, the recipe is very simple:. Place some, roasted peanuts in an electric blender with a dash of salt and a spoon of peanut oil and blend until the mixture is spreadable. Good!
A doctor in St. Louis, Mo., is given credit for inventing peanut butter. In 1890 he was looking for a high protein food that could be digested easily by his patients. He put some peanuts into a meat grinder and out came success.
Peanuts are not grown commercially north of Washington, DC. Peanut producing states include Georgia (which is the leading producer), Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Virginia and Alabama. New Mexico and Mississippi have also gone into the business.
While peanuts are big in North America, the world's largest peanut acreage is in Asia, with India and China leading and accounting for half of the world's fields.
For years peanuts have been used extensively in Oriental cooking.
And what's in a name? It's the peanut here, but on the European continent they're called groundnuts. In Africa they're called goobers, and elsewhere they're known as pinders, ground peas and earthnuts.
Spanish peanuts are from Oklahoma they're small, almost round and usually found in the store already shelled, with their red skins on. Experts say they have a lower fat content than other peanuts.
The Virginia type peanut is found in the Carolinas and Virginia (it's larger than the Spanish and sometimes called the cocktail nut). In Georgia and Alabama, where about 60 percent of the U.S. peanut crop is grown, growers concentrate on the Florunner variety the leading type used in making peanut butter and candy. Peanuts have an exceptionally high nutritional value. They have the virtue of having a very high protein content and a high energy value. On top of everything else nice about the peanut, it contains no cholesterol