Who Invented Peanut Butter?

Who Invented Peanut Butter? Let’s find out! Everyone knows and loves rich and creamy peanut butter, but today we’re having a look at who’s really responsible for history’s greatest gift to humankind.

A Brief History of Peanut Butter

Ah, peanut butter: rich and creamy, peanutty, buttery, and delicious. For many of us, peanut butter is a food group all on its own. You’ll find it eaten by the spoonful straight from the jar, baked into desserts, blended into smoothies, stirred into savory dishes, and spread over just about everything. Who doesn’t remember tucking into a PB&J sandwich as a kid? Or, you know, this time last week.

Peanut butter is an ingredient that’s almost always on hand, ready to bring richness and flavor to sweet and savory recipes alike. It’s the arguably better half of delicious combinations like peanut butter and chocolate, peanut butter and banana, peanut butter and jelly… I could go on. If you’re anything like the 94% of Americans rocking peanut butter in their households, you know there’s rarely an occasion to go without it.

Many people falsely credit the invention of peanut butter to George Washington Carver, an American agriculturist who revolutionized the peanut industry. So if the so-called “father of the peanut industry” didn’t invent peanut butter, who did? Let’s dive into the history of everyone’s favorite pantry staple.

The Father of the Peanut Industry

So, who was George Washington Carver? He’s considered to be one of the greatest American inventors, responsible for finding hundreds of uses for peanuts, from shampoo to chili sauce. Thanks to Carver, peanuts are the dietary staple they are today.

While George Washington Carver’s agricultural innovation laid the groundwork for the peanut industry, peanut butter happens to be one peanut product he didn’t invent.

Who Was the Real Inventor of Peanut Butter?

In fact, if we travel way, way back in history, the practice of grinding roasted peanuts into a paste has been traced back as far as the Aztecs and Incas. However, the invention of peanut butter as we know it today can actually be attributed to the work of three different inventors: 

The first was Marcellus Gilmore Edson, a Canadian, who patented his process for milling roasted peanuts into peanut paste in 1884.

Later on in the US, another peanut butter prototype was patented by the nutritionist Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (remember him? He also invented Corn Flakes). As a director at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in 1895, Dr. Kellogg marketed peanut butter as an easy-to-digest protein substitute.

Finally, another US inventor, Dr. Ambrose Straub, came out with his peanut butter-making machine. Once peanut butter could be made at scale, the rest was (literally) history! You’ll now find peanut butter in just about every US cupboard, available in textures ranging from creamy to crunchy, along with many different flavors.

Why Was Peanut Butter Invented?

Modern peanut butter, as invented by cereal pioneer John Harvey Kellogg, was intended as a bland, nutritious protein substitute for his patients who could no longer manage solid foods like meat. In fact, Dr. Kellogg saw meat as a stimulant and a sin! And while the doctor experimented with other nut butter like almond butter, peanut butter was the most economical.

Thanks to Dr. Kellogg’s elite following (he was well-respected by the likes of Amelia Erhart and Henry Ford), peanut butter eventually grew in popularity, and into its current status as a household staple.

My Favorite Recipes with Peanut Butter

Want to makes something tasty with peanut butter? Here are my favorite recipes:

Sources: National Peanut Board, Smithsonian Magazine

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.