The peanut butter and jelly sandwich turns 125 this year, and it has spent that time doing something few foods manage. It has stayed cheap, stayed simple and stayed on the menu, from lunchboxes to restaurants charging $24 for a version with foie gras.
The first known written recipe appeared in 1901 in The Boston Cooking School Magazine of Culinary Science and Domestic Economics, written by Julia Davis Chandler, the Associated Press reported in a feature marking the anniversary. It called for currant or crab-apple jelly, and it was not aimed at children. Chandler suggested thin bread fingers layered with peanut paste and jelly, a tea-time item for people with money.
