While preparing for breakfast, it is obvious that you came across the spread. Spreads are also a type of food that is applied usually with the help of a knife. They are generally applied to crackers, bread, and similar foods. Spread aims to enhance the texture or flavor of the food because, without spread, it may consider bland.
Among these spreads, peanut butter and cream cheese are two of the worldwide popular spread. They both are preferred by different people, due to their tastes and benefits. Peanut butter and cream cheese come with differences in their nutritional values, contents, and other things.
Peanut Butter vs Cream Cheese
The main difference between peanut butter and cream cheese is that peanut butter is a paste of ground peanuts that are roasted. But cream cheese is made from cream and unskimmed milk. Peanut butter tastes sweet, salty, earthy and Nutley, whereas cream cheese has a flavor of mild and sweet with a slight tang.
Peanut butter is made from ground and dry roasted peanuts. This butter is consumed in many countries. The leading exporter of peanut butter in the United States, it is also one of the largest consumers annually per capita. Even in the United States, 24 January is celebrated as the National Peanut Butter Day.
Cream cheese is an unripened cheese made either with a mix of cream and milk or with the only cream. Cream cheese has a mild but rich taste and color nearly in white. It is similar to cottage cheese, but its fat content is higher in amount. In the United States, it is a popular filling in sandwiches and used as a spread.
Comparison Table Between Peanut Butter and Cream Cheese
| Parameters of Comparison | Peanut Butter | Cream Cheese |
|---|---|---|
| Interpretation | It is a paste of ground peanuts that are roasted. | Cheese is made from cream and unskimmed milk. |
| Origin | The 1884s | The 1650s |
| Calories | More | Less |
| Cholesterol | Less | More |
| Taste | Sweet, salty, earthy, and nutly | Mild and sweet with slight tang |
What is Peanut Butter?
Peanut butter is a paste of ground peanuts that are roasted. It generally contains additional ingredients to modify the texture or taste of it, such as sweeteners, emulsifiers, or salt. Peanut butter is quite similar to other nut butter like almond butter. It is a nutrient-rich food that consists of high levels of protein, several dietary minerals, and vitamins.
It is served as a spread on toast, crackers, or bread and used to make sandwiches (particularly the peanut butter and jelly sandwich). Peanut butter is also used in making several desserts and breakfast dishes, such as peanut-flavored smoothies, cookies, croissants, granola, crepes, or brownies.
When it comes to the introduction of peanut butter, it can be traced to 1884. A man namely Marcellus Gilmore Edson who belonged from Montreal, Quebec got a patent of roasted peanuts in the “fluid or semi-fluid state”. This was milled between the surfaces which were heated. But once the product was cooled, he recognized that it turned into an ointment or butter.
In 2013, the book was written on peanut butter by Jon Krampner’s highlighted that the per capita consumption of peanut butter in the Netherlands and Canada exceeded that in the United States.
What is Cream Cheese?
Cream cheese generally tastes like mild fresh cheese. In industrial production, stabilizers are often added, such as carrageenan and carob bean gum. Cream cheese is meant for fresh consumption because it is not naturally matured. That’s why it differs from other soft cheese like Brie and Neufchatel.
Cream cheese is more comparable in texture, production methods, and taste compared to Boursin, a Normandy creamy cheese and mascarpone, soft cheese that originated in Italy. Cream cheese is used as a spread, filling for sandwiches, for baking of cheesecake and it is also a component of some frosting and pastries.
In France, the reference to cream cheese can be traced as early as 1651. There are references in England to cream cheese at least from 1754. In 1872, a food processing company namely Kraft Foods came out with cream cheese in America.
According to the Food and Drug Administration of the US, cream cheese contains 33% milk fat with moisture content less than 55% and 4.4 to 4.9 pH range. Similarly, Canadian and Drug Regulations consider that cream cheese must contain a maximum of 55% moisture with at least 30% milkfat. It varies among other countries with a considerable high amount of fat.
Main Differences Between Peanut Butter and Cream Cheese
- The major contents included in peanut butter are salt, dextrose, hydrogenated vegetable oil, and other sweeteners. On the flip side, cream cheese includes milk fat which has a moisture content of less than 55 percent with a 4.4 to 4.9 pH value.
- For the excellent source of dietary fiber, peanut butter is preferred over cream cheese. As the per 100 grams of peanut butter contains 8g of dietary fiber whereas cream cheese does not have significant amounts.
- Both peanut butter and cream cheese are good sources of calcium. But peanut butter has less calcium than cream cheese. Because peanut butter has 45mg per 100 grams, whereas cheese cream has 97mg of calcium.
- In terms of iron, peanut butter has notably more iron compared to cream cheese. Peanut butter has 1.9mg per 100 grams, while cream cheese has 0.11mg of iron.
- When it comes to macronutrient ratios, peanut butter has more protein, carbs, and less fat compared to cheese cream per calorie.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that both peanut butter and cream cheese are classified into spreads. They both can be applied to crackers, bread, and similar foods with the help of a knife. Peanut butter and cream cheese vary in their contents, nutritional values, and other things.
Peanut butter is a paste of roasted ground peanuts, while cream cheese is made from cream and unskimmed milk. Peanut butter is made up of dextrose, hydrogenated vegetable oil, and other sweeteners. On the other hand, cream cheese consists of milk fat with a moisture content of less than 55 percent. Although peanut butter is the best option for consumption compared to cream cheese because peanut butter delivers several nutrition values that cream cheese fails to deliver.
