Peanut Butter und Cheddar auf knusprigem Brot by Charlie

The first guest post! This is one of Charlie's favorites.

The tradition of this dish dates back probably to the middle ages and has been passed down through my family for countless generations. It is usually served as a late night or afternoon snack. This dish made a comeback in the 1820's through the popularity of Mutter Fest, celebrating the exotic nature of the peanut in old world Germany and continues to be popular here to this day.

Though Germany now deems this legume to be too exotic for their tastes, this meal did make it through Ellis Island and now prospers in the United States, though customs agents had a hard time with its name and shortened it to Peanut Butter und Cheddar. It is now more commonly referred to by its Americanized name, Peanut Butter and Cheese.

This meal can be made with any peanut butter (except this one), cheese, and bread; but the performance and technique for preparation must be followed to a T to respect its early roots and be fully considered Peanut Butter und Cheddar auf knusprigem Brot.

Begin with one or two slices of bread. Normally these slices would be toasted, but if you're hungry and need to eat quickly; room-temperature is not frowned upon. These photos are of Dave's Killer Bread.

 

We then move to the peanut butter. Today we chose Trader Joe's Organic Crunchy Peanut Butter. This is a particularly good brand: it's good and oily when first get it, it's easy to stir, and it doesn't dry up or harden after being in the fridge. And it tastes good to.

Really good.

So use lots.

 

While the peanut butter is easier to spread on to the bread if it's been toasted, the scraping the butter knife makes into the bread surface makes for an interesting and rather palatable texture.

 

Another method is using two fingers to distribute the peanut butter, making clean-up fun for the whole family!

 

After the bread has been spread, it is time to slice the cheddar. This is really where technique is important. We always use Tillamook Medium or Sharp Cheddar. The medium is usually on sale and is sharper than most brands version sharp cheddar. To slice the bread, use the same butter knife you used to spread the peanut butter. That's right. No sharp knives, or god forbid an actual cheese cutter. To get the proper large gauge slices with raggedy puzzle-piece-it-together chunks on the bread, using the butter knife is essential. This may take you forty to fifty tries to get this right, but is absolutely worth it once you've mastered this.

Be careful: While not usually sharp, butter knives can hurt you. Just sayin'.

 

Place the cheddar chunks on to the bread until its completely covered. Playing Tetris will help you practice to achieve better results without wasting too much cheese. (and also improve your hand eye coordination!).

Cut an extra piece to enjoy on its own.

 

Ready to serve!

Also, to drink you can see that I am counting my calories. Red Hook Slim Chance to the rescue! Locally made and TASTE-EE.

Prost!