You’ve Probably Been Storing Peanut Butter Wrong Your Entire Life

How To Store Peanut Butter Properly

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  • You’ve probably been storing peanut butter the wrong way your entire life
  • One person discovered a simple solution that could make your life a lot easier
  • Check out more food hacks here

As far as I’m concerned, peanut butter is one of the foods of the gods. It’s right up there with potato chips, pizza, wings, and beef jerky (the good kind) when it comes to things I’ll never get tired of eating.

Unless you are allergic to it (and if you are, I feel really bad for you), we’ve all been smacking our lips on peanut butter since we stopped getting our nutrition from a baby bottle.

Now, we put it on apples, celery, chocolate, crackers, pretzels, bananas, pancakes, oatmeal, and popcorn. We eat it in cookies, brownies, ice cream, smoothies, milkshakes, yogurt, pie, energy bars, and even salads . With the possible exception of bacon, (which some people actually put peanut butter on), peanut butter might be the world’s most delicious and versatile food.

However, there’s a way to make it even better, as that jar of peanut butter you probably have sitting in your cupboard or tucked away in the pantry could be even better if you just stored it correctly.

Wait… stored it correctly?! What do you mean? 

I’m glad you asked.

It’s easy to understand why you might think the manner in which jars of peanut butter are usually stored at the supermarket is an example you can follow once you bring them home. However, if you keep them upright and sitting at room temperature once you open them, you’re doing it wrong.

Why? Well, a self-avowed peanut butter expert explained the reasoning while outlining the correct way to store it for Delish (it’s worth noting the method in question is reserved for “natural” peanut butter, which—unlike the flagship offerings produced by the likes of Jif and Skippy— has a tendency to separate):

If you’re as deeply invested in the life of peanut butter as I am, you know that when you have a jar of natural PB, it develops a little pool of oil on the top. Which is when the churning and twisting (in a very dramatic way) is necessary, in order to happily consume oil-free PB. But, when you store the good stuff upside down, the oil will evenly distribute throughout the entire jar, instead of in a stagnant liquid bath on top.

Another way to ensure that oil stops pooling at the top? Refrigerate the stuff upside down. Not only will you not have to deal with a liquid-y, nut butter-y mess when you fervently open your jar, but you’ll also have a creamier peanut butter that’ll hold its own against whatever it is you’re pairing it with.

Mind. Blown.

Douglas Charles headshot avatar BroBible
Before settling down at BroBible, Douglas Charles, a graduate of the University of Iowa (Go Hawks), owned and operated a wide assortment of websites. He is also one of the few White Sox fans out there and thinks Michael Jordan is, hands down, the GOAT.