With my hands… oh, jelly on top. Though I don’t remember ever considering or trying the alternative.

Stirred together. That way, no one gets top billing.

Oatmeal Bread
Trader Joe’s Creamy PB
Grape Jelly (any brand)

Generous amount of PB. Schmear of jelly.

PB slice on bottom. Jelly slice on top. Cut in half.

I tried peanut butter once. Hated it.

Peanut butter (Teddy’s smooth – the real kind you have to stir) on the bottom, strawberry jam (Polaner All Fruit) on top. If I want to go fancy, I toast the bread first.

White bread, crunchy peanut butter, Smucker’s Simply Fruit grape spread. I have never paid attention to which ends up on top.

Ideally I would have double fruit Smuckers strawberry jam and Jiff peanut butter on Texas toast. With ripe , but not black, sliced bananas. One side with pb and other side jam. Peanut butter first then jam and extra jam on peanut butter slice.

Mixed together and on crispy crackers.

No J, all PB.

Salami, Swiss cheese, raspberry jelly (not jam) and Skippy chunky on Rye bread with seeds. Cut diagonal with a side of potato chips. For real !

PB but no J, on whole-wheat toast. Peanut butter is an easy, go-to staple in any vegan diet.

@Tropical_Willie: You win the Elvis Award.

I take the PB+J and place it in the trash.

I haven’t had PB and J since I was a kid. My mom would make it and cut it into triangles (and I’d eat around the crusts). I don’t remember which side was down or up and I don’t think I cared. But I can’t help thinking of PB and J as a very juvenile food item. Not that I’d turn it down if it were offered to me today. :)

“juvenile food”

Maybe, but why must we grow up in every regard @Demosthenes? Why?

I had one yesterday, and it made 49-year-old me feel like a nice youthful 48.

There is no top or bottom on a PB&J. The sandwich gets flipped over when you pick it up, unless you hold it with your elbows up in the air when you eat.

Preparation is key: chunky PB smeared on both slices of multigrain bread (Orowheat or David’s), jelly/jam on top of the PB. Consume with a cold mocha.

Never noted whether the top was peanut butter or jelly. Either is fine. I like crunchy peanut butter with boysenberry or raspberry jelly the best, and with orange marmalade the next best, on whole grain bread, preferably Dave’s Killer bread.

Note: if you are packing a lunch to eat later, put the peanut butter on both sides of the bread, and put the jelly in the middle, so it won’t leak or make the bread soggy.

For a special treat put a little bit of Tobasco sauce on your PB & J.

And even better, put peanut butter and mayo on a burger. One of our now defunct diners used to do that, and they swore it was fabulous. It was.

On wheat bread. I use my mouth, too, but I use my hands to stuff it in there…

I always put the PB on first FWIW. Also I use strawberry jam or honey.
Pretty sure the PB ends up on the bottom. (Damn it. Another of those ridiculous Fluther things I have to research.)

@Dutchess Mmm, strawberry jelly is great. All the local preserves here are amazing, too.

@hello321
Listen, I just prefer the german version

^ I have no idea what that atrocity is, but hating on peanut butter is a hate crime.

@hello321 it is raw pork with an onion topping

Thought so . . . @ragingloli !

As much as I enjoyed reading all your replies, I’m disappointed that I did not get any help.

I was really trying to fathom whether jelly or peanut butter is better once the sandwich is bit into depending on its layering.

I guess I’m looking for the why is one way better, over the other.

I can accept that it is answered by those who see no difference, or mix the two ingredients.

Let’s say you have peanut butter on the lower slice, and jelly above it, on the upper slice, as you take a bite. Before you initially shift the bite to chew you are mostly protected from tasting anything but the bread. The force of the initial bite may squish the looser preserves out the edges of the miniature sandwich, sending fruit flavor to the sides of the tongue first.

I think THIS is the deciding factor. Whether the preserves are top or bottom, the more liquid quality they have means they are likely tasted firstly, after the bread.

That may unravel the whole question.

On the other hand, perhaps the upward movement of the jaw for the initial bite could cause the reverse order (jelly on bottom, pb on top) to have a hydraulic effect on the loose peanut butter. That is, the quickly moving jelly, moving towards the roof of the mouth, pushes some peanut butter out the sandwich bite first.

For me the answer is I’d rather have the sweeter jam taste happen first, then be followed by the savory flavor of the peanut butter.

So, I vote peanut butter on the bottom.

”So, I vote peanut butter on the bottom.”

I agree. See my initial post.

There’s no wrong way to eat a PB&J as long as there’s bacon on/in/alongside/with/near it!

That is the grossest thing I ever heard @Strauss!

No, no…@Strauss is 100% correct. Peanut Butter and Bacon is the bomb diggity.

Thin sliced yellow onion, iceberg lettuce, mayo on lettuce side of sandwich and Creamy Skippy. Liked Wonder Bread for this one.

You guys are so gross!!

Bacon is independently gross, but raw pork is gross^2 (unless you’re a magnificent mammalian predator).

I am surprised that no Fluther gourmands have mentioned two well now variants:

Fluffernutter, peanut butter and marshmallow creme,

and,

Peanut butter and Banana.

Not a fan, but peanut butter and raspberries on toast is delicious.

Y’all are nuts.

@zenvelo it’s Amish peanut butter, right?