Should You Be Storing Your Peanut Butter Upside Down?

Peanut butter is a staple of sandwiches and an ingredient that can transform dishes like chicken satay and homemade pad thai. It's also pretty healthy and comes packed with protein, fiber, and nutrients like magnesium, selenium, and iron. However, even the best brands of natural peanut butter are prone to separation when they're being stored, which means a lot of stirring for you. Now, you can use a hand mixer to stir peanut butter and make things a little easier, but this still takes time and elbow grease. To solve this problem, some folks swear by storing natural peanut butter upside down. But does that really work?

The reasoning behind storing peanut butter upside down is that you won't have a ton of oil sitting on top when you open the jar, saving you the hassle of spending time stirring it. This is because, when stored upside down, the oil is distributed towards the bottom of the jar (which is facing up). So when you flip it right-side around to open the jar, the oil is supposed to be reincorporated into the solids naturally. 

However, according to the team at Serious Eats, who tested this method for two weeks, the peanut butter became even more separated than when stored upright. That said, this test was conducted on an unopened jar. After a bit of research, we found that for some people, opening the jar and stirring it initially before storing it upside down seems to be the key to making this method work. Even so, while storing your peanut butter upside down can cut down on stirring and make things less messy, there is another step that will help: refrigeration.

While many people are used to storing peanut butter in the pantry, there is an argument for storing peanut butter in the fridge, especially natural peanut butter, which has fewer preservatives. Not only will this help keep it fresh, but it can actually slow down the separation process. 

This is because the cooler temperatures in the refrigerator cause the natural oils in the peanut butter to harden, slowing down their separation from the solids. However, it's important to thoroughly stir the peanut butter before storing it in the fridge so that the oils don't harden on the top of the jar, making it a real chore to stir when needed. Now, if you use your peanut butter frequently, storing it upside down in the fridge may not be necessary because you'll likely go through it before any significant separation can occur. That said, if you don't use it often, turning it upside down can be beneficial, and it ensures you always have solid peanut butter to dig into instead of a buildup of oil. 

If you are storing your peanut butter upside down, make sure that the lid is on as tightly as possible to avoid leaks. To be extra safe, consider putting the jar in a container or on a small plate to catch any oil that may leak out.