I finished Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut last week. It can be modestly described as post-apocalyptic. In a scene set in a run-down Manhattan, there’s mention of making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I was curious when this modern staple became exactly that.
I left it at a quick dive into the Wikipedia article, and figured it would be good to report here. It seems the first reasonable description of something adjacent to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich comes from a 1901 issue of the Boston Cooking School Magazine. Twenty years later, when sliced bread came out and peanut butter became more of an economical staple, it became something kids could make themselves. By the second World War, both peanut butter and jelly have been on US military ration lists.
This was fascinating. It’s not as recent as I would have guessed.