Hello, my faithful friends and seekers of curiosities from our edible – or not-so-edible – past! It is I, your Little White Lab Rat, introducing you to the experiment conducted by my Lab Assistant, JRL in AZ.

When last we spoke, I reported the dismal failure of Peanut Butter Sausages as suggested by the 1918 Relief Society Magazine. JRL, with the courage and wisdom borne of life in the great Southwest, wondered if these, um, “treats” might be more edible if they were made from homemade peanut butter of the kind likely used in 1918, rather than with the sweet commercial concoction available today … and he volunteered to make the experiment! Such bravery! such courage! so much in the spirit of Little White Lab Rat!

My friends, he has followed through. Indeed, he returns to us today with his report.

Here is my update on the peanut butter sausages made with old-fashioned peanut butter.

First, I made the peanut butter. Unsalted roasted peanuts and a little bit of vegetable oil in the food processor for several minutes. This impressed my family.

Next, I used the second recipe because it had egg in it and I figured that would hold things together better than the first recipe.

1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon sage
1/2 cup cooked rice
1 egg
salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients together. Mold into little sausage rolls and fry in deep fat.

Homemade peanut butter is much different from the stuff we have today. It isn’t sweet unless you put sugar in it, which I didn’t because I wanted these to be savory. Also, it is really oily. Like, really oily. I only put in enough oil to get the peanuts to actually grind up in the food processor, but when I made the patties, the oil was squeezing through my fingers. It was most impressive. This only impressed one member of the family.

I mostly followed the recipe – I say mostly because I didn’t have any sage. So I used some other random spice mix – something like “chicken herb” – and salt and pepper. Hint: It needs a lot of salt and pepper.

I made patties and fried them in oil. They stayed together fine and got a nice crust.

And how did they taste? Well, if you use enough spice, you can’t taste anything else, right? They tasted like spices. Not much peanut flavor. They were pretty good with ketchup. They are also very filling with all that peanut and oil. But they did not impress my family.

Lessons learned:

1) Today’s peanut butter is not adapted for these recipes. Ground up peanuts work just fine.

2) Everything tastes okay deep-fried and dipped in ketchup.

3) Don’t expect your family to be impressed with your 100-year-old recipes.

And there you have it, my friends, straight from my Lab Assistant’s notebook. His family may not be impressed, but I, your Little White Lab Rat, am exceedingly impressed!