Difference Between Peanut Butter and Cream Cheese

Peanut butter vs Cream cheese

Peanut butter and cream cheese are spreads, which is widely used the world over. Though these two are widely preferred, they come with differences in their contents, nutritional values and other things.

Peanut butter is made from ground dry roasted peanuts. The peanuts, which are food pastes, come in crunchy and smooth varieties. The major contents in Peanut butter include hydrogenated vegetable oil, salt, dextrose and other sweeteners.
The hydrogenated vegetable oil is used to stabilize the content and also to prevent separation of oils. The salt is added to prevent spoilage and dextrose along with other sweeteners to enhance taste.

Cream cheese is also known as soft cheese. It is soft, mild tasting and white in colour. The major contents in cream cheese include milk fat (30 to 33 per cent) having moisture content of not more than 55 per cent and a pH value of 4.4 to 4.9.

Coming to the origin of peanut butter and cream cheese, it is seen that cream creams has been in use from the 1650s and the peanut butter from 1884s.

There are references in French to cream cheese as early as 1651. In England, the reference to cream cheese can be traced at least from 1754. In America, it was the Kraft Foods, a food processing company, which had come out with cream cheese in 1872. The credit goes to dairyman William Lawrence.

Coming to peanut butter, it can be traced to Marcellus Gilmore Edson of Montreal, Quebec. In 1884, Edson got a patent for the “fluid or semi-fluid state” of the roasted peanuts when it was milled between heated surfaces. Once the product cooled, he found it to be like that of an ointment or butter.

When talking of the contents, cream cheese has a low protein content than peanut butter. Moreover, cream cheese has low fat content than peanut butter. On the other hand, peanut butter comes with more calories than cream cheese.

Summary:
1.Peanut butter is made from ground dry roasted peanuts. Cream cheese is soft, mild-tasting and white in colour.
2.The major contents in Peanut butter include hydrogenated vegetable oil, salt, dextrose and other sweeteners. The major contents in cream cheese include milk fat (30 to 33 per cent) having moisture content of not more than 55 per cent and a pH value of 4.4 to 4.9.
3.Cream cheese has a low protein, fat content than peanut butter. On the other hand, peanut butter comes with more calories than cream cheese.

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