Your Peanut Butter Sandwich Needs More Depth. Butter Is The Answer

There's a lot of weird peanut butter sandwiches out there. Some swear by the slick savoriness of peanut butter and mayo, others adore the sulfurous taste of Hemingway's peanut butter and onion sandwich – and still others argue that you should put peanut butter on a burger.

All this creativity is most likely because — let's be real — a plain peanut butter sandwich isn't quite satisfying. It begs for a little extra oomph, especially if you're not using jelly. But not all of us are ready to throw caution to the wind and add onions and mayo. Luckily there's an easy and less radical way to upgrade your peanut butter sandwich — a slathering of table butter.

Growing up in the South, I knew many people who thought it was weird not to add table butter to a peanut butter sandwich. My college roommate kept a stick of butter in our tiny dorm room fridge just for that purpose, and my grandfather always added a thin layer of butter to one side of his peanut butter sandwiches. 

Yes, peanut butter and butter sounds a little redundant, but these are two completely different creamy spreads. A slathering of good butter adds depth, richness, and a subtle savory edge to the sandwich. As a bonus, the slippery butter counteracts the dry stickiness of peanut butter, in the same way that jelly and mayonnaise do. The great thing about this sandwich upgrade is it doesn't take much — just a thin layer of butter truly makes a big difference and takes a plain peanut butter sandwich to a whole new level. You may not even taste the butter, but you'll certainly feel its presence. 

I find buttered peanut butter sandwiches perfect when I'm not in the mood for the sweetness of jelly. Some also suggest adding butter to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and I must admit this isn't a bad idea. The truth is, butter rarely makes anything worse. If you're looking for a low-risk way to upgrade your peanut butter sandwiches, and you're ready to move beyond jelly but not quite up for onions, give butter a try. The only potential downside is that you might never be able to go back to plain peanut butter again, and you'll have to have butter on hand every time you make a peanut butter sandwich. But that's a small price to pay for deliciousness.