National Fluffernutter Day is observed annually on October 8th. Some food holidays are stickier than others, and National Fluffernutter Day is a stick-to-your-ribs-chin-fingers-nose kind of day! Celebrate zealously, then take a bath.
- Marshmallow candy dates back to ancient Egypt where it was a honey-based candy flavored and thickened with the sap of the root of the Marsh-Mallow plant. They mixed marshmallow juice with honey to make a special candy that was reserved for the pharaohs and the gods. The Roman scholar Pliny believed that a daily drink of marshmallow juice would prevent all diseases and also cure most illnesses. The problem was that it wasn’t very palatable.
- In the 19th Century Pharmacists in Paris, France extracted juice from the marshmallow plant’s roots and cooked it with egg whites and sugar, then whipped the mixture into a foamy meringue that later hardened, creating a medicinal candy used to soothe children’s sore throats. People liked the new product and started eating it like candy.
- 1910 – The Limpert Brothers brought out a product called Marshmallow Fluff, which was sold to soda fountains and ice cream parlors to put on ice cream sundaes.
- In 1913 during World War I, Emma and Amory Curtis of Melrose, Massachusetts invented Snowflake Marshmallow Creme and published a recipe for peanut butter and marshmallow creme sandwich, which is the earliest known example of a Fluffernutter.
- Emma named her creation the “Liberty Sandwich,” as a person could still obtain his or her daily nutrients while simultaneously supporting the wartime cause.
- A sweet marshmallow-like spread called Marshmallow Creme was invented in 1917 by Archibald Query in Somerville, Massachusetts.
- Query sold his recipe for Marshmallow Creme to Durkee-Mower, Inc. in 1920, who renamed it Marshmallow Fluff. Over 100 years later they continue to sell it under that name today.
- A Fluffernutter is a sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow creme usually served on white bread.
- The term fluffernutter can also be used to describe other food items, primarily desserts, that incorporate peanut butter and marshmallow creme.
- It was in 1960 that the term Fluffernutter was created by an advertising agency for Durkee-Mower in an attempt to effectively market the peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich.
- In 2006, the fluffernutter inspired some severe anti-junk food legislation in its home state of Massachusetts when State Senator Jarrett Barrios found out his son was being served fluffernutters every day at school. The amendment limited the serving of fluffernutters at school to once a week.
- Because of the debate over the bill, the town of Somerville, MA held its first annual tribute to Archibald Query and Marshmallow Fluff. in 2006, Somerville, MA. The festival was dubbed “What the Fluff.” October 8th was officially declared “National Fluffernutter Day.”
- Different recipes have wheat bread instead of white bread, and Nutella hazelnut spread instead of peanut butter. Sweet ingredients can be added like bananas. Salty ingredients like bacon can also be added
- Astronaut Richard Michael Linnehan, who was born in Massachusetts and grew up in New Hampshire, enjoyed a fluffernutter while he was onboard the International Space Station in 2011.
- While Fluff is marketed and sold around the world—including in Japan, Canada, Israel, Russia, Germany, and many other parts of Europe—Fluff still isn’t available everywhere in the United States, and most of its sales take place in New England. Durkee-Mower manages to sell nearly 7 million pounds of the sweet stuff a year; 50 percent of those sales occur in New England and upstate New York.
- There is a fluffernutter song.
- You can watch it here.
- Here are the words so you can sing-a-long:
- Oh you need fluff, fluff, fluff
To make a fluffernutter
Marshmallow fluff
And lots of peanut butter.
First you spread, spread, spread
Your bread with peanut butter
And marshmallow fluff
And have a fluffernutter.
When you enjoy, enjoy, enjoy
Your fluff and peanut butter
You’re glad you have enough for another fluffernutter.
- Oh you need fluff, fluff, fluff
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