Is it cheaper to make your own Peanut Butter?
As with everything else, more and more basic pantry staples are going up in price. We love peanut butter and regularly use it for sandwiches, sweet treats, and cooking with it.
I decided to pull out the food processor and see if I could make my own peanut butter. I wanted to find out if it was worth the work and if it would save money on my grocery budget. Let’s take a look at why peanut butter is so expensive, what types of peanuts to use, and other helpful homemade peanut butter information!
Why is peanut butter so expensive?
Peanuts and Peanut Butter is a commodity that can vary in price depending on the peanut crop for the year. According to the National Peanut Board, peanuts are traditionally only harvested from September to November. This is so the peanuts are removed from the ground before the first frost.
If peanut farmers have a particularly wet growing season or have any damages to their crop, then the price of peanuts and peanut butter goes up. This is basic supply and demand.
There is pretty much always a demand for peanuts and peanut butter, but farmers can only grow so much per year. It is estimated that they grow approximately, 4,000 pounds of peanuts per acre!
Shelled vs unshelled peanuts weight
Most recipes for homemade peanut butter call for 2-3 cups of salted or unsalted peanuts. You can buy peanuts still in the shell or you buy them without the shell. Let’s first go over some basic peanut math, to find out some helpful information:
1 cup of peanuts in the shell weighs about 2 oz and contains approximately 29 whole peanuts
When you remove the shells of 1 cup of peanuts, you end up with just under 1/2 cup of peanuts that weighs 1.5 oz. (there were approximately 52 individual peanuts due to some whole peanuts only containing 1 nut)
This means when you buy peanuts still in the shell, approximately 25% of the weight will be shell and 75% will be peanuts.
So, if you need 2 cups of just peanuts, you will need approximately 3.5 cups of peanuts in their shell. This makes me wonder if buying peanuts in the shell is cheaper than buying just the nuts. Let’s check!
| Store | Type of peanuts | Price |
| Ingles | Unsalted peanuts in Shell (10oz bag) | $1.25 |
| Walmart | Salted peanuts in Shell (20 oz bag) | $1.98 |
| Ingles | Dry Roasted Peanuts (no shell) 16oz container | $3.48 |
| Walmart | Dry Roasted Peanuts (no shell) 16oz container | $1.98 |
Now at first glance, the peanuts in the shell seem like better buy, but we are not taking into account the weight of the shells.
| Store | Starting weight | Amount Peanuts out of their shell | Price per oz |
| Ingles | 10 oz bag | 7.5 oz of peanuts | 0.16 per oz |
| Walmart | 20 oz bag | 15 oz of peanuts | 0.13 per oz |
| Ingles | 16 oz container | 16 oz of peanuts | 0.21 per oz |
| Walmart | 16 oz container | 16 oz of peanuts | 0.12 per oz |
I thought it was going to be a slam dunk, that peanuts in their shell was the cheapest option, but I was wrong. The Great Value brand of dry roasted peanuts in a 16oz container was the cheapest way to buy peanuts. As a bonus you don’t have to de-shell the peanuts, which makes a pretty big mess!
Why is my homemade peanut butter not creamy?
The number one complaint about making homemade peanut butter is that it is not as creamy as store bought peanut butter. This has a very easy fix!
Most peanut butter recipes advise that you will need to run your food processor for at least 5 minutes to grind the peanuts into a spreadable consistency.
This can vary a lot depending on your equipment though. Some food processors have heavy duty grinders and stronger motors, so it may take longer on your machine.
We have found that if you blend for another couple of minutes, your peanuts will eventually turn creamy too!
I’ve noticed that if I make too big of a batch of peanut butter at one time that it can also take longer to get the whole batch creamy. This is why I recommend making smaller batches and just making more batches.
This will cut down the processing time and make for a smoother and more consistent peanut butter. It will also help you store it longer in smaller containers.
Check out “Homemade Fresh Ground Peanut Butter Storage” for more information on how to store your homemade peanut butter and what to store it in!
Do you have to peel peanuts for peanut butter?
To keep the red skins or to remove the skin from the peanuts is a much-debated topic for making peanut butter. The red skins of peanuts are actually highly nutritious, so you may want to leave some skins on!
Peanut skins contain high amounts of natural antioxidants and dietary fiber which can be part of a very healthy diet. They have a slightly bitter taste, so I would not recommend keeping the skin on all the peanuts, unless you also add some extra flavorings.
Some popular flavor additions include adding honey, some salt, chocolate, spices, and even hot peppers. We tried some spicy hot peanut butter, and it was so yummy on crackers and celery!
Is homemade peanut butter good for you?
Peanut butter can be part of a healthy diet and a good source of fats as well. What you may not know is that the peanut butter that you buy in the store is not made with just peanuts like at home.
We looked at three super popular brands of peanut butter, and honestly, I was a little shocked at the ingredient lists.
JIF= Made from Roasted Peanuts And Sugar, Contains 2% Or Less Of: Molasses, Fully Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils (Rapeseed And Soybean), Mono And Diglycerides, Salt.
Skippy=made from Roasted Peanuts, Sugar, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Cottonseed, Soybean And Rapeseed Oil) To Prevent Separation, Salt.
Peter Pan= made from Roasted Peanuts, Sugar, Less than 2% of: Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils (Cottonseed and Rapeseed), Salt.
We had a feeling that the big commercially made peanut butter had some additives, but with the high oil content of peanuts, I was not expecting adding even more oil.
These oils in store bought peanut butter keep it from separating and prolong the shelf life. If you are trying to eat a heart healthy diet, you may want to avoid all those hydrogenated oils.
When you make peanut butter at home, it is as pure and natural as can be with no additives that you don’t want. Just all the good for you and yummy parts!
Is homemade peanut butter worth it?
The total amount of peanut butter that you make based on the number of peanuts needed will vary a little bit based on the recipe and also any additional flavorings you add.
In general, a good rule of thumb is that 2 cups of peanuts without shells will make about 1.5 cups of peanut butter.
Let’s compare the cost of making peanut butter using the cheapest peanut option (Great Value 16 oz container of Roasted Peanuts) and compare it to the costs of natural peanut butter available at the grocery store!
If we used all 16oz of peanuts, we would have 10.6 cups of peanuts and that would make approximately 8 cups of peanut butter. (64oz by volume)
| Type | Size | Cost | Price per Oz |
| Homemade peanut butter | 16oz peanuts/8 cups peanut butter (64oz) | $1.98 | $0.03 |
| Skippy Natural Peanut Butter | 15 oz | $2.62 | $0.17 |
| Justine’s Honey Peanut Butter | 28 oz | $6.47 | $0.23 |
| Smucker’s Natural Peanut Butter | 16 oz | $3.64 | $0.22 |
| Crazy Richard’s All Natural 100% Peanut Butter | 16oz | $3.34 | $0.20 |
| Great Value Natural Peanut Butter | 16oz | $1.74 | $0.10 |
| Great Value Regular Peanut Butter | 64 oz | $4.94 | $0.07 |
Homemade peanut butter costs way less than any natural peanut butter that you can buy at the store! I even looked for the biggest container I could of just regular (not natural) peanut butter to see if I could get the cost per ounce down.
The homemade peanut butter was even cheaper than the regular peanut butter in the 64oz size! So, it doesn’t matter if you typically buy name brand peanut butter or generic store brand. It also didn’t matter if you normally buy Natural or Regular peanut butter, the homemade version came out so much cheaper!
This little fun and quick DIY project in the kitchen to make your own peanut butter is definitely worth it. Not only are you making a healthier version of peanut butter, but you can also potentially save a lot of money.
The amount of money saved will be highly dependent on how much peanut butter you typically buy. Some households go through a container a week, and others may only use a container every couple of months.
For other DIY projects, check out “Is shredding your own cheese cheaper?” and “Is it cheaper to make your own frozen vegetables?“
