Temptation

Just after this photograph was taken, Tiddles & the others discovered that the only thing that tasted better than freshly-caught fish was freshly extracted human liver.

Advertising #18

It’s all a question of good taste….

A question of good taste….

Like Krazy and Ignatz, Carville and Matalin*, Cupid and Psyche or Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, the peanut butter and pickle sandwich is one of those unlikely pairings that shouldn’t work, but does.

That’s how I’ve always felt, anyway. I’ve been happily eating these distinctive little sandwiches for years. The vinegary snap of chilled pickle cuts, like a dash of irony, against the stoic unctuousness of peanut butter. The sandwich is a thrifty and unacknowledged American classic.

My father passed them down to me. Peanut butter and pickle sandwiches got him through law school at West Virginia University. I’ve come to consider them the work-at-home writer’s friend. The ingredients are always there for you, waiting loyally in the pantry when more glamorous lunch options (cold cuts, leftovers) aren’t returning your calls.The PB&P has been a minority enthusiasm in America for generations, lingering just under the radar.

The sandwiches appeared on lunch-counter menus during the Great Depression and in extension-service cookbooks in the 1930s and ’40s in recipes that generally called for a few spoonfuls of pickle relish. A lot of people’s grandmothers used to eat them.

Presumably a lot of people’s grandmothers went on to become sadistic, psychopathic serial killers just to take away the thought.

There are somethings I don’t miss about the US at all, & France does have its compensations…..

*Up to here I was completely lost; think “Wilson, Kepple & Betty”, but without the sand & you’ve pretty much nailed it.

The full story (do not read if you have just eaten) at the NY Times here.

The after-game snack of choice for the Mudville Slingers.