Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are normally made by spreading PB on one slice of bread, jelly on the other slice, and putting one atop the other. Each bite, thus, contains both PB and J together.

What if instead of that, the peanut butter and jelly were tiled on the bread? That is, the sandwich would still be half PB and half J, but in alternating patches.

This could be done with a plastic stencil with square cutouts: Put this on one slice of bread and spread PB over it; then remove and scrape the leftover PB back into the jar (or use for next sandwich).

Then invert the plastic stencil and put on top of the other piece of bread and spread the jelly***; the jelly squares should thus exactly miss the PB squares when you lay one bread on top of the other.

Now each bite will be pure peanut butter or pure jelly if desired, or seek out the fun "seams" where the two meet, for extra variety!

As a bonus, it's probably much easier to spread the condiments with the plastic because the bread won't crumble as much.

*** I'd love to get all the tiling on one slice of bread, and have the other slice bare before merging. Then you could admire your artwork before eating it. Any ideas how to unsloppily do this? I'm thinking a stencil that has raised and lowered squares (to fit over the areas of PB you've already put down) and every other square is removable.

Thank you.
-- phundug, May 09 2008

maybe you could prepare it ahead of time... http://www.joyofbak...erboardCookies.html
[xandram, May 09 2008]

Sandwich Equipment - Waterjet Cutter: http://www.neos-mcm...wich_equipment.html
Our Water Jet Cutter provides smooth clean cuts with virtually no wetting of the product. Cut sandwiches . . . [baconbrain, May 11 2008]

I don't eat peanut butter, but this still sounds good to me. [Goes off to tile a BLT.]
-- DrCurry, May 09 2008


Hmm. If you made each tile square the same size as a bread slice, alignment wouldn't be an issue. ;)

You could get good alternating tiles on one slice of bread if you made a base that held the bread, and two templates that snapped onto it. You'd drop the slice into the base, put on one template, slather, replace template and slather again. That'd keep the bread from squishing and tearing, too.

You could make all kinds of different template designs, not just tiles--Darth Maul, say. And do both slices, serve open-face and let the kid slap them together, or not. [+]
-- baconbrain, May 09 2008


Normally it's nothing, but given the first two words of this idea's text I thought you would decipher it :)
-- phundug, May 09 2008


Isn't there a way you could just peel premade jelly and pb squares off a sheet of paper?

The stencil seems messy. Most people buy tiles premade, so it would fit the idea better as well.
-- mylodon, May 09 2008


Playing with food meets OCD. I'd buy it. [+] Could you get the M. C. Escher birds and lizards stencil?
-- MikeD, May 09 2008


//Playing with food meets OCD.//

I owe you a bun for that tagline. [+] for the idea.
-- Klaatu, May 09 2008


How about using factory machinery to sandwich the pb&j tiles betwen plastic, kind of like cream cheese rings?
-- nomocrow, May 09 2008


//What on earth is "PB"?//

It's the chemical symbol for lead isn't it? But why someone would spread lead on their bread? They'd be dead.
-- Ling, May 10 2008


If you had a device to cut the bread into equal-sized squares, leaving the crust intact, you could first spread half the bread with jelly, half with peanut butter. Cut the squares, then arrange them onto a clean slice, inside their crust.

This could be in alternating tiles, or at random, for a mosaic of mystery. The cutting tool could do tessellations instead of simple squares (as [MikeD] said, Escher shapes, etc.).
-- Amos Kito, May 10 2008


Freeze them, jigsaw the pieces, place alternating patches together.
-- sartep, May 11 2008


hmmmm...grout...

...I'm thinking maple...
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 11 2008


Instead of bread, just use waffles.
-- bneal27, May 11 2008


//Instead of bread, just use waffles.//

Perfect.
-- sartep, May 11 2008


In real life, but not your kitchen, maybe, you could spread a slice with jelly, a slice with peanut butter, and run them through a computer-controlled waterjet cutter. Waterjets ARE used to cut sandwiches in assembly-line kitchens that make pre-packaged sandwiches--see link. Add in CNC, which is already available for waterjet cutters, and you could make any shapes you like in your slice(s).

Cut out both slices with the same pattern, peel up the ying and yang of PB and J, lace them together, and use a plain slice on top to hold it all together. You'd have [Amos Kito]'s anno exactly fulfilled. And the material to make an opposite sandwich, too.
-- baconbrain, May 11 2008



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