The Simple Trick to Keep Your Peanut Butter from Separating—No Stirring Required

Tired of stirring your natural peanut butter? Try this!

There are few things more trusty in my fridge than a jar of natural peanut butter. It’s one of those ingredients that comes in handy when I’m in a bind (or when I’m just plain old hangry).

After all, the salty, sweet, decadent stuff is not just made for PB&J’s—I rely on it for smoothies, an afternoon snack on some apples or celery, a powerful breakfast combo smeared atop a rice cake with honey, or as the secret ingredient to a perfect weeknight stir fry. And I'm not even mentioning all its potential dessert applications!

There is one thing I don’t like about natural peanut butter and that’s when it separates in the jar—the oil pools on top and the ground peanuts solidify underneath. I think of myself as a strong and able-bodied person, but boy oh boy does that jar give me a run for my money! Just the forearm strength alone required to reintegrate the oils and the solids makes me second-guess my hankering for a spoonful sometimes.

Plus, I always wind up with oil spilling over the jar’s edge onto my hands or the countertop, and the vigorous stirring gets the entire spoon covered in peanut butter all the way up the handle. Am I right to think you know exactly what I'm describing?

Read More: What is Natural Peanut Butter?

The Simple Trick for Storing Natural Peanut Butter

Luckily, however, I stumbled across a no-mix solution to this PB dilemma on the internet. It’s quite simple actually. All you have to do is store the peanut butter jar upside-down in the fridge. Once you’re ready to spread or scoop just flip the jar over, open it, and scoop—no stirring required!

I know, I also thought this easy hack seemed too good to be true, but after trying it out for myself I was truly amazed. All those years of struggling, stirring, and (dare I say?) cursing were for not! Who knew just a simple inversion of the jar would cure me of my snack-time woes?

Why Does Storing the Jar Upside Down Work?

Natural peanut butter will separate because it’s not loaded with any additives or stabilizers (stuff like hydrogenated oils and other stabilizers that prevent highly processed peanut butters from separating). So, without something binding the oil to the solids, the oil floats up to the top of the jar.

The reason why this method for storing works is because by inverting the jar, you’re forcing the oil to move through the solids as it attempts to travel up to the surface. By keeping it in the fridge, you stop the oil from traveling all the way through the solids and up to the other side—it'll firm up before it separates again. So, by proxy, you’re having the oil re-incorporate itself for you. Which, to be honest, I think it deserves after making me do all the hard work for all this time.

Read the original article on Simply Recipes.