A Nutty Beginning: The Origins of Peanut Butter

Peanut butter might seem like a staple of the modern pantry, but it has a history that stretches several centuries. Well before peanut butter ever donned its creamy spread persona on grocery store shelves, ancient South American cultures-the Inca civilization and the Aztec civilization among them-were grinding roasted peanuts into a soft paste, occasionally with cocoa mixed in. These early forms of peanut spreads were the ancestors of what we now call peanut butter.

The first modern patent on peanut paste was much later in 1884, with Canadian chemist Marcellus Gilmore Edson describing the milling of roasted peanuts into a smooth, spreadable consistency. His version sometimes included sugar to firm up the texture. A decade later, in 1895, American doctor John Harvey Kellogg made his nut butter from boiled nuts. Kellogg developed it as a high-protein, easy-to-consume food for patients in his sanitarium, particularly those who had problems chewing.

Many people believe that George Washington Carver invented peanut butter, but in reality, his contribution was in researching hundreds of uses for peanuts and promoting its cultivation. For by this time, peanut butter itself already existed.

The popularity of peanut butter as a commercial product took hold when a businessman named George A. Bayle Jr. marketed the nutty spread as a snack in the 1890s. However, after gaining fame at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, where visitors were fascinated by this new nutty spread, it reached its big break in the 1920s, when the chemist Joseph L. Rosefield developed a process to prevent separation in peanut butter. This allowed it to become creamy, stable on the shelf, and perfect for mass production. Soon, brands like Peter Pan, Skippy, and later Jif would make peanut butter a household staple.

With its ease, nutrition, affordability, and versatility, the world by mid-twentieth century had learned to love peanut butter. Whether spread on bread, folded into desserts, or used in savory dishes, peanut butter earned its global reputation as a comfort food.

Why Peanut Butter Became So Popular

Despite its ancient roots, peanut butter only really caught on when manufacturers worked out how to stabilize it. When people realized they could store it for months without the oil separating, it became a take-anywhere food. The high protein content made it popular with vegetarians, children, and athletes alike. It’s inexpensive, extremely filling, and adaptable. You can use it in sandwiches, smoothies, curries, baked goods, and sauces. And, of course, the most important thing: it tastes amazing.

India’s Own Nutty Legacy: Groundnut-Based Chutneys and Spreads

In most Western countries, butter or nut butters are everyday staples, their diets being heavy on bread. Spreads naturally become a part of their meals. In India, however, our cuisine is centered around chapatis, rice, bhakris, dosas and an enormous variety of condiments. Instead of butter, we reach for ghee, fresh chutneys, spiced pickles, podis, gravies and dry powders.

Even though peanut butter has become popular here in recent years, India has always had its own delicious tradition of groundnut-based chutneys and spreads.

Shengdana Chi Chutney, Maharashtra

This is a dry version of peanut chutney, made by roasting groundnuts and then blending them with garlic, red chilli, and salt. The texture remains coarse, almost like powder, which makes it perfect for bhakri, rotis, or even as a flavorful sprinkle on meals.

Wet Groundnut Chutney with Dosa, South India

Freshly prepared groundnut chutneys are a breakfast must-have across Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. These creamy chutneys are blended together with peanuts, chillies, spices, and sometimes coconut. They go beautifully with dosas, idlis, and vadas.

But the peanut story in India does not end here. Many states have their own local groundnut-based accompaniments. Here are some more regional treasures:

More Regional Indian Groundnut Spreads Worth Celebrating

Palli Pachadi from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

This classic chutney made from roasted peanuts combined with garlic, red chillies, tamarind and salt has a creamy texture and bold, slightly tangy flavour. People enjoy it with dosa, idli, pesarattu and upma.

Dry Chutney of Peanut and Garlic from Maharashtra

This version is made by grinding the peanuts with fried garlic and red chilli powder. Slightly oily, it is intensely aromatic and infuses bhakri or rotis with heat and crunch.

Peanut and Mint Fresh Chutney

A more modern favorite savored all over India, this combination of roasted ground nuts, mint leaves, coriander, green chilies, and lemon forms a refreshing dip for pakoras, parathas, and snacks.

Dry Peanut Podi for Chapatis and Rice

This is a powdered chutney made by mixing roasted peanuts with chilli, cumin, and salt. Many people use it as a quick flavour enhancer for chapatis or hot rice with ghee. Some even prepare it during fasting days when they need high energy accompaniments.

Mirchi ka Salan, Telangana and Hyderabad

The star of the dish, though technically a gravy, is a paste made with peanuts, dry coconut, tamarind and spices. Rich and nutty, this curry accompanies Hyderabadi biryani and festive meals.

Peanut and Yogurt Chutney

A lighter, cooling variant made by blending roasted peanuts with curd, garlic, chillies and a little lemon. Goes great with rice or dosa when you want something tangy and smooth.

Put together, these regional variants reveal how entrenched the peanut is in everyday foods across India. While peanut butter abroad can be sweet or neutral and is predominantly used as a versatile spread, India’s groundnut condiments are savoury, spicy, tangy, full of flavour.

Fun Peanut Butter and Peanut-Based Recipes to Try at Home

Peanut Butter Dosa Dip

Mix peanut butter with warm water or coconut milk. Add salt, jaggery, green chilli and lime. Use as a creamy dosa dip.

Peanut Butter Sandwich with an Indian Twist

Spread peanut butter on whole wheat bread, add sliced mango or banana, and sprinkle chaat masala. Toast for a warm, fusion snack.

Spicy Peanut Spread for Rotis

Blend together peanut butter with coriander, onion, garlic, chillies and salt. Spread on rotis or use as a dip for snack items.

Peanut Butter Paratha Stuffing

Mix peanut butter with chopped coriander, onion, green chilli, and optional cheese. Stuff it into dough and make flavourful parathas.

Sweet Peanut Butter Ladoo

Mix peanut butter with powdered jaggery and a little amount of roasted semolina or crushed gram. Make small ladoos to serve instantly.

Andhra Style Palli Pachadi

Roast the peanuts and then blend them with garlic, red chilies, tamarind, and salt. Season with mustard seeds and curry leaves.

Why Peanut Butter Lover Month Matters

 It’s not just a quirky food holiday, but also a celebration of a food that travelled from ancient civilisations, coming to global shelves and finally to Indian kitchens. It gives us a chance to explore the nutty goodness that we already enjoy in so many forms, from chutneys to curries. 

For us  Indians, this is also a reminder that, as delicious as peanut butter may be, our own groundnut chutneys have been adding richness, heat and comfort to our meals for generations. By marrying these traditions and playing with new recipes, we create flavours that are both familiar and exciting. So grab a spoon, a slice of bread, a bhakri or a dosa. Today is the perfect day to celebrate the humble peanut in all its creamy, crunchy, spicy and savory glory.

Just think of what you will get when you lock 20 celebrities in a mansion with lies, deceit and a dash of Karan Johar’s signature drama. The ultimate game of betrayal, The Traitors! Prime Video’s latest reality show is here to blow up your Thursday nights. Here, backstabbing isn’t a twist. It’s the whole plot.

Who are ‘The Traitors’?

This high-stakes game features a glittering mix of entertainers, influencers and powerhouses from across the spectrum. Among them are:

Karan Kundrra, Uorfi Javed, Raftaar, Maheep Kapoor, Ashish Vidyarthi, Jasmine Bhasin, Anshula Kapoor, Raj Kundra, Elnaaz Norouzi, Purav Jha, Harsh Gujral, Lakshmi Manchu, Jannat Zubair, Sahil Salathia, Mukesh Chhabra, Sudhanshu Pandey, Sufi Motiwala, Janvi Gaur, Nikita Luther and Apoorva aka Rebel Kid.

Yes, that’s twenty faces you know, some you love and some you love to watch lose their cool.

What is the Game?

Adapted from the globally acclaimed format, The Traitors is a psychological game of trust and treachery. Among the 20 players are three secret “traitors” who will “murder” one contestant each night. The rest must figure out who’s lying through their teeth and they must work together to unmask the traitors before they themselves are eliminated. As the tension rises and paranoia sets in, the players openly betray each other for daily eliminations to compete for a grand prize. They must navigate daily missions, heated discussions and brutal banishments, all under Karan Johar’s watchful eye and perfectly arched eyebrow.

Where, When & How to Watch?

The Traitors premieres June 12 on Prime Video, with new episodes dropping every Thursday at 8 PM. Can you spot the traitors before they strike again? Only one way to find out. Watch here.

They say it’s the calmest people who carry the most chaotic mind. Sometimes it’s the ordinary things that cause the messiest mental chaos. Once you’re in it, it’s really hard to get out. So, imagine feeling stuck in a mental state at a time when people were not even ready to acknowledge it as a problem. Horrifyingly lonely isn’t it? Now imagine you’re always being surrounded by people but in your head, it’s just you, all alone. Just you and your thoughts. How long can you go without screaming for help and ultimately drowning from ignorance? Qala makes you question just that.

Qala: A Tale of Yearning and Envy

Written and directed by Anvita Dutt, Qala is a tale of a cuckoo bird who tries her hardest to live among us humans but fails. Qala is a tale of a mother who could never truly appreciate the bundle of talent that her daughter was, and a daughter who was ready to do everything she can to get the mother’s appreciation. 

Qala which means talent is the name of our protagonist. Throughout her entire life, she tries her hardest to woo her toughest audience who should have been her staunch supporter, her mother. It’s ironic how her name was Qala, and yet it was her Qala that people used to look down upon.

Just like a cuckoo bird who tries her hardest to make a life in the wild forest by stealing or using deceit, similarly, Qala tries her best to survive in the purposefully crafted forest-like hostile life that she and her mother share. Unable to bear the loss of losing her son at the hands of her daughter, Qala’s mother was unable to accept her daughter for who she truly was and instead started a domino effect that carried forth till the very end. 

Qala: Through a Microscope

Initially, starting with optimism, but as time passed, the optimism faded and we are left with a harsh reality to face. A reality filled with envy and yearning that takes a very dark ugly turn. A reality that makes us question ourselves as a society as to how ignorant we truly are towards issues concerning mental health. How quick we are to dismiss it as a common cold when it’s deadlier than cancer. 

Talent is something that everyone possesses. Though it may be in different fields or in similar ones, talent in something or the other is ever-present in humans. But how objective can one be while judging such talents, especially ones that are abstract in nature? The vocal battle between Jagan and Qala brings forth this point to the forefront.   

The scenic background act like a mood ring that reflects the various moods that each scene carries. From feeling distraught and unstable as highlighted by the dark and isolated childhood home of Qala located on a snowy hill of picturesque Himachal Pradesh to finding some stability yet being consumed with envy as depicted by the green-coloured wall of Qala’a new home to the presence of the gargoyles to foreshadow the ominous turn that Qala and Sumant Kumar’s meeting was about to take, the setting plays a very important role in conveying the mood of each scene.   

Afterword

With stunning camerawork that captures the innocent yearning of a mother’s love to the violent jealousy that doesn’t stop until it had burned everything to the ground to the mental turmoil that leads to the end of everything—Qala acts as a true artistic masterpiece. The character of Qala is an anti-hero, a grey character who at one moment makes your heart wrench with sorrow at her plight and in the next moment makes your mind rage at her actions. It’s a movie that evokes all emotions and made you numb at the same time.

In 2015, TVF’s 5 episodes web series, ‘Pitchers’ paved a new direction towards dramas based on realism and honest tussles of daily life, especially if you’re someone taking the courage to establish your own start-up. Four friends, Naveen (Naveen Kathuria), Mandal (Abhay Manjan), Yogi, (Arunabh Kumar) and Jeetu (Jeetendra Kumar) give up their 9-to-5 jobs, to fulfill their college dream of kicking-off an app based start-up. Upon it release, season one proved to hook the viewers.

The technicalities behind a start up, constant fear of failure, new dead ends, personal relationships of the four characters, and the humour filled dialogues and bickering made ‘Pitchers’ a binge worthy series. Of course, it was unlike other regular drama releases, for it stepped into a territory of a very realistic portrayal of young entrepreneurs and the daunting path they’ve to take.

The much awaited, ‘Pitchers’ season 2 was released on December, 23rd 2022. The series continued from where it left off. Did Anurabh Kumar, an entrepreneur himself, the creator and the director of the series, manage to create the same magic in the second season? Here’s what we think.

‘Pitchers’ Season 2: A Glimpse of the Anxious Road of Nascent Startups And Entrepreneurship

The second season of the web-series introduces us to Naveen’s start-up, ‘Pragati’. They’re in the midst of introducing their very anticipated next series of the product, which could only happen with a partnership with another company, KC enterprises, who’s working offline in the same sector. Not spoiling much for those who haven’t watched it yet, but the entire season, like the previous one, is presenting Naveen with dead ends after dead ends. The problem solving venture indeed continues!

What becomes interesting in this season is the grim atmosphere that it is drenched in. Building a start-up isn’t a piece of cake. ‘Pitchers’ season two brutally captures the debt trap, the vicious competitors, employee management, working conditions, team commitments, chasing VCs and making risk-worthy decisions.

The hour long episodes, unlike the previous season, become a little tedious, and the first two episodes couldn’t really deliver the urge for you to stick to the screens, which only gained momentum in the the the third episode. Season two is all about the undulated steps that one has to take for a startup to shoot across the highest stars. For all aspiring young entrepreneurs, this series can provide some significant insights.

Jeetu Was Terribly Missed! Oh, And We Loved Ridhi Dogra!

Season one heavily focused on the personal lives and interpersonal relationships of the group – Naveen, Yogi, Jeetu and Mandal. Maybe the camera’s pan into their lives provided a more realistic touch to the series. In season two, this was lacking. Anurabh Kumar’s central direction has been in and around the development of Pragati. What’s more, Jeetu had apparently left the start-up after some disagreements between the four. His character was crucial in representing the Indian household anxiousness and anti-start up attitude which prevails in many families, and discourages the young entrepreneurs to even take the first step. Jeetu’s character would have been a significant plot in season two to show the developments in his relationship with his father.

Nevertheless, Naveen’s anxiousness, uncertainty, and the stress of the employees working in a baby start-up could be felt through the screens. Maybe this tediousness wasn’t for the majority of the viewers of ‘Pitchers’ who might have returned to the show for an equal screen time for the characters’s domestic and romantic lives.

Needless to say, the star cast, Naveen Kathuria, Abhay Manjan and Anurabh Kumar himself, delivered an honest performance once again! Infact, Naveen Kathuria and Abhay Manjan outdid their characters effortlessly! Maybe one thing that ‘Pitchers’ will always maintain is it’s quality casting with outstanding execution of the scenes and talented actors. One terrific addition to the new season’s cast was Ridhi Dogra, the actress, who is soon going to be making her Bollywood debut! The beautiful Ridhi Dogra added a charismatic element to the scene with her distinct and sharp presence.

To conclude, ‘Pitchers’ season 2 fulfilled the promise of delivering an honest peek into the start-up community, the brutalities of the market world and entrepreneurship, but it couldn’t retain its binge-worthiness. It might have underestimated season one’s holistic screenwriting which allowed a balanced spoonful of personal and the market world.

Bhuvan Bam, one of India’s most famous YouTube Content Creator, actor and singer-songwriter dropped his self curated web series: Dhindora on 14th October, 2021. Bhuvan’s acting of different characters all together highlighted his fans’ favourites from the BB Ki Vines Universe in a unique background, and proved Bam’s versatile acting skills once again.

Dhindora, starring the BB Ki Vines Universe characters: Bhuvan, Bancho, Babli sir, Janki (Mummy), Bablu ji (Papa), Sameer Fuddi, Titu Mama and Papa Maakichu, all played by Bhuvan, stay true to their characters. The story follows the life of a middle class family, who come across life’s realities, unexpected scenarios and disappointments after the father wins a lottery. The series is packed with domestic eccentricity, social satire which caters both to the humour as well as make us come face to face with the daily ironies of the society. The famous Sameer and Bancho and their cuss-mouthing words cater to Bhuvan Bam’s fans and add cracking laughter in the story.

Review

The Web series follows simple storytelling techniques, making the series straightforward for the audience. Each episode, on average, is twenty minutes long. That might come as a short running time, but Bhuvan and the scriptwriters made sure that each episode had something weighty to offer. 

One of the most commendable features of the series is Bhuvan’s acting. He is playing more than one character, many of them appearing all together in one scene. However, Bhuvan’s acting is so phenomenal that the viewer becomes almost unconscious that the same man is acting behind all the characters in one frame.

Curated with social satire, Bhuvan comments on the themes of relationship, family, dreams, struggles, and the phoney ties people have made with each other. One of the most apparent critiques that Bhuvan attempted to make, which is present throughout the series, is how indifferent people have become with each other. The rush behind money and fame really blinds people into falsity and betrayals. In the current society, human’s innate nature of love and care has been blinded by other ulterior and non-important motives. 

Bhuvan also brings onboard the famous host of Crime Patrol, Anup Soni, whose hilarious spontaneous commentary adds to the humour flavours. Dhindora’s comedy is indeed a hundred percent in BB Ki Vines signature style. 

Bhuvan’s romantic interest in the series brings us the talented Gayatri Bhardwaj, playing Dr. Tara. Through their relationship, we see the explorations of friendship, dreams and promises. The character chemistry is sweet and fits well.

In short, Dhindora is a perfect watch for people who love social satire, want a light watch, with light suspense packed here and there. Oh, and the last episode of the series ends with a cliffhanger!