INDIGNITY VOL. 3, NO. 47: Peanut butter and what? A conversation with Hamilton Nolan.

SANDWICH DISCOURSE DEP'T.

Grilling a Sandwich Innovator

OVER THE WEEKEND, my former colleague Hamilton Nolan tweeted an idea about food—about sandwiches, in particular: 

A number of people have scoffed at my idea “peanut butter and jelly sandwich cooked like a grilled cheese sandwich” so I guess they like scoffing as much as I like winning james beard awards.

I was curious, with a curiosity that could only be satisfied with a frying pan and a direct-message interview. So I did both. 

TOM SCOCCA, FOR INDIGNITY: You are something of a pioneer in the food-blogging space, and this is not your first time proposing new methods or materials for the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. What led you to this one?

HAMILTON NOLAN: Thank you for your objective praise which means a lot coming from a guy who wrote a famous thing about cooking onions. I'm always thinking about PBJ and how to refine and advance the art of it, in various ways. This particular insight came to me one day when I was making a grilled cheese sandwich, which is a good sandwich to have when you want a salty sandwich instead of a PBJ. "I bet you could make a PBJ like this in a pan with butter," I thought, and from there it was only a short step to spreading this idea to the world.

INDIGNITY: When this interview began, I had a peanut butter sandwich cooking in a frying pan, and now it is on a plate to cool down a little. I did not use jelly, because I have some little bananas that are very ripe, so instead I did the lite version of the Elvis Presley peanut butter, banana, and honey sandwich, omitting the bacon.

Elvis himself consumed these sandwiches fried, I believe. Were you inspired by Elvis Presley at all?

HAMILTON NOLAN: I have heard that Elvis ate somewhat similar sandwiches but my vague memory is his sandwiches were: a loaf of bread with a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jelly and a pound of bacon and he ate it all. Maybe that's an "old wives tale" but now we'll never know. The point is that I thought of this idea independently and should receive full credit. Some might say I am the "Elvis" of PBJ ideas.

INDIGNITY: Certainly, however the credit for this sandwich might shake out, Elvis on net would owe more to other people's innovations than other people owe to his. Have you made this sandwich personally yet, or is it still in the realm of the theoretical for you?

HAMILTON NOLAN: I'm a little ashamed to admit I haven't made it yet. Mostly I got the inspiration for it and since then I have been trying to get other people as excited by this inspiration as I was. I'm sad to say that many have rudely dismissed the idea as something that is probably not good. My plan is to keep a mental list of all these people and then when I make the sandwich finally I'll tell them how wrong they are and maybe send them a picture of a delicious buttery looking sandwich. And if it turns out to not be that good, that's OK because I have plenty more ideas about peanut butter and jelly. This is just the beginning.