h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Americans also have a healthy liking (actually, it's more like a cocaine addiction to) for peanut butter. You just can't get it anywhere else, really.

I've never tried American peanut butter, but I've heard it's very sweet.

The European version is not so sweet (which is why Europeans have their problems getting their heads round peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches).

The European version (available in most European countries) tastes just like what you get if you put peanuts and butter in the blender. I have made it myself this way, and it's a really good substitute for the kind off the supermarket shelf.

It doesn't even need butter. I've discovered you just need a really good blender (set to pulverise)and a couple of pounds of salted peanuts. The peanuts really need to be ground down, but if you persist long enough you will get a recognisable - and nice - peanut butter. It's important to do it as a series of shortish bursts rather than one long continuous action. This spares the blender's motor, and allows you to manually intervene every so often to turn and push down the peanut mush inside the blender. You will need to do it as it will preferentially stick to the inside of the container and crawl up the sides in a gloopy brown mass rather than engage with the blades. The only thing to do here is to switch off, remove the lid, and mash it down into the blades again with a handy wooden spoon.

Patrience is also called for, as for a long time you won't notice anything much happening - just a mass of nut chippings swirling round in the blender. But gradually, you will see this mass of nut pulp and chippings grow moister and wetter as more and more peanut oil is released, and this is key to success. As the nuts break down and are pulped, the peanut oil begins to extrude out, holding the gloopy brown mess together. You really don't need to add butter or oil, as the peanuts themselves contain enough to make a good butter!

Keep firing the blender - although for no longer than three or four minutes at a time with "rest" periods in between - and more and more nuts will break down, more nut oil is released, and the mass begins to recognisably look like smooth peanut butter. It will crawl up the inside of the blender and away from the blades, so it has to be knocked back a few times (preferably with motor off!)

DFior a crunchy peanut butter, add more whole peanuts towards the end of the process. It takes a while, but you will know when it gets there. Allow it 20-25 minutes of attentive blending! Transfer the gloop to a sterile jar (remember to sterilise lid too - dunk clean jar and lid into boiling water for about a minute) and you have it. No additives, just peanutty goodness. And a pound of salted peanuts costs less than a jar of PNB!

"And a pound of salted peanuts costs less than a jar of PNB! "

Or did until ASDA and Morrisons started selling an excellent value range peanut butter for about 60p a jar... which given the cost of the amount of peanuts needed to make the same volume (to fill a same-size jar) , rather takes away the rationale for making your own....