Peanut pioneers: Who invented the modern peanut butter?

Victoria Reyna-Rodriguez, Des Moines Register
·1 min read
1
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Peanut butter: delicacy to household staple. But, how'd we get here?

Technically, the Inca were the first to make a spreadable peanut paste. The peanut butter we all know and love wasn't introduced to the modern world until nearly 1900.

Most people, especially Iowans, tend to believe the famous inventor George Washington Carver can be credited for the first peanut butter patent. But, while the Iowa State University graduate had his fair share of inventions, peanut butter wasn't one of them.

Who really invented peanut butter?

John Harvey Kellogg, the American doctor, nutritionist and cereal pioneer, filed a patent for a proto-peanut butter in 1895, according to the Smithsonian Magazine.

His compound involved boiling nuts and grinding them into an easily digestible paste for patients at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, a health resort in Michigan. Smithsonian Magazine says that Kellogg's efforts and elite clientele, which included Amelia Earhart, Sojourner Truth and Henry Ford, helped establish peanut butter as a delicacy.

More: From the archives: Love Rice Krispies Treats? You have an Iowan to thank

What did George Washington Carver invent, then?

Dr. George Washington Carver, the famed African American agricultural chemist, is shown in this 1940 photo at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
Dr. George Washington Carver, the famed African American agricultural chemist, is shown in this 1940 photo at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

Born into slavery in 1864, Washington Carver eventually moved to Winterset, Iowa before enrolling in Simpson College and later Iowa State College, which became Iowa State University. He went on to become an educator and well-known agricultural researcher.

Washington Carver is best known for creating more than 300 uses for the peanut and more than 150 uses for the sweet potato, according to Iowa State's CALS diversity program. He also made various foods and beverages using soybeans.

Some of his more intriguing inventions and discoveries include:

  • Axle grease

  • Hand cleaner

  • Glue

  • Diesel fuel

  • Printer ink

  • Soil conditioner

  • Laundry soap

  • Iron tonic

  • Laxatives

  • Nitroglycerine

Victoria Reyna-Rodriguez is a general assignment reporter for the Register. Reach her at vreynarodriguez@registermedia.com or follow her on Twitter @VictoriaReynaR.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Who invented peanut butter? It wasn't George Washington Carver