Peanut butter and Fluff is easy to make
Making a peanut butter and Fluff sandwich, otherwise known as a “Fluffernutter.”
- The fluffernutter, a sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow fluff, originated in Massachusetts in the early 1900s.
- Emma and Amory Curtis, great-great-great-grandchildren of Paul Revere, popularized the combination of marshmallow creme and peanut butter.
- Archibald Query created Marshmallow Fluff, which was later sold and produced by Durkee-Mower, who coined the term “fluffernutter” in the 1960s.
- The fluffernutter remains a regional favorite, primarily enjoyed in New England.
Remember sitting down in elementary school, opening up your lunchbox and biting into a sweet, gooey fluffernutter sandwich?
It may come as a surprise that most people outside of New England do not know that joy. In fact, both the fluffernutter and fluff itself were invented in Massachusetts in the early 1900s. Since then, the peanut butter-fluff combination has largely remained a regional treat, with the rest of the country choosing to pair their peanut butter with jelly.
Here’s a brief history of the quintissential New England sandwich.
What is a fluffernutter?
A fluffernutter, known more commonly in Massachussetts as a “fluffahnuttah,” is a sandwich made with creamy peanut butter and marshmallow fluff, typically on white bread.
History of the fluffernutter
According to the New England Historical Society, the fluffernutter can be credited to Emma and Amory Curtis of Melrose – the great-great-great-grandchildren of Paul Revere. In 1913, the siblings began producing Snowflake Marshmallow Creme, and while they did not invent the marshmallow product, they were the first to popularize it with peanut butter.
During World War I, Emma Curtis published various recipes for her family’s marshmallow creme in a newspaper column, including a peanut butter and marshmallow creme sandwich, which she called the Liberty Sandwich.
Around the same time, in 1917, a Somerville man named Archibald Query began making his own marshmallow creme, which he sold door-to-door at $1 per gallon. Due to sugar shortages during the war, Query sold the recipe for $500 to Swampscott residents Allen Durkee and Fred Mower, who began calling the product Marshmallow Fluff.
The product quickly gained popularity as the local favorite for marshmallow creme, with fluff production moving to a factory in Lynn in 1929, according to Marshmallow Fluff’s website. All the while, the Curtis’ peanut butter and marshmallow creme sandwich continued to be eaten, and it was officially coined a Fluffernutter by Durkee-Mower in the 1960s.
Today, Durkee-Mower still produces Marshmallow Fluff in Lynn with Query’s original recipe – sugar syrup, corn syrup, vanilla flavor and egg white. Somerville celebrates Query’s creation of fluff with an annual “What the Fluff?” festival, and National Fluffernutter Day is recognized annually on Oct. 8.
