Well that's just nuts!

I was babysitting last week and while J was still napping I was skimming a Cooks Illustrated magazine.  It had some good recipes in the issue and some other cooking related articles and then I turned to the review section. And I got excited. They were reviewing their best picks for peanut butters.  Awesome, I love peanut butter and thought of all the various brands I enjoy and wanted to see if they topped their list.

Well, boy was I surprised. I was convinced such a prestigious foodie magazine would choose the top natural brands of peanut butter. Nope. Not. At. All.

Their favorites? Skippy, Jif, and Reeses PB.

The ones they don't recommend? Maranatha, Peanut Butter & Co, and  Smuckers Natural.

Really? Really? What is the main difference between the ones they liked and one's they didn't? Oh you know, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oil, sugar, and molasses.  The one's they didn't like had two or three ingredients: peanuts, maybe palm oil, and maybe some salt.

You'd think that the folks at Cooks Illustrated would have more refined palettes. But they claimed the natural ones were gritty and not smooth enough. Sure put enough crisco and corn syrup into sand and I am sure it will taste smooth! Even Real Simple ranked natural brands above the taste of Skippy and Jif!

To their credit, the reviewers at Cooks Illustrated tried to make the natural ones taste "better" they added crisco and sugar to the Smucker's PB and still couldn't make it taste like Skippy.  Maybe that is because you shouldn't mess with what's naturally found in nature!