I've been eating PBJ sandwiches for over 50 years, and to this day, I have one probably once a week. I love 'em.

I know some people are Jif eaters, but for me, it's gotta be Skippy. Creamy, not chunky. Jelly is a little more flexible, but Smuckers Red Raspberry Preserves is my clear favorite.

Anyhow, all these years (lemme do the math = on the order of 2,500 PBJ sandwiches consumed, at least 85% of them made by myself) I just used the knife to ladle out some PB on one slice of bread, then used the same knife (after wiping off excess PB on the second slice so as to not get any in the jelly jar) to ladle out some Jelly, eyeballing the quantities so as to have just the right proportion of Peanut Butter to Jelly while making a nice sandwich, not so stuffed full that the innards squirt out when you take a bite, but not so paltry as to be mostly bread with a wee taste of PBJ.

More peanut butter than jelly, that's for sure. Never measured, just ladled until it looked right (and of course this was reinforced immediately by the taste test).

The other day, the Peanut Butter jar was almost empty. But I was not going to let the little amount that remained go to waste, even though I had a backup full jar. Eyeballing it, I guessed that it was just about the right amount for an optimum sandwich. But I could see that it was going to be almost impossible to get it all out with the knife (reaching down to the bottom and the PB really doesn't want to let go of the jar at this stage).

So I did something I had never done before, not in over 50 years. I used another utensil in addition to the knife for spreading. I used a tablespoon to scoop the PB out of the jar. put it on one slice of bread, and I was right, the correct amount of PB for my sandwich had been remaining in the jar. And it was almost exactly 2 tablespoons of PB. "Huh," I thought. Then I looked on the jar, and it said the normal serving size was ... guess what? 2 tablespoons. "HUH!" I thought. Then I looked on the jelly jar, and IT said the normal serving size was 1 tablespoon. "Hmmm," I thought, and after cleaning off the spoon of PB (I know what you're thinking, "Did he lick it?" I'm not telling), I scooped out 1 tablespoon and put it on the other slice of bread and lo and behold, it eyeballed just right! "Well I'll be danged!" I thought. Here all these years I had unknowingly followed what was clearly the recipe for an optimum PBJ = 2 parts Peanut Butter to 1 part Jelly. 3 tablespoons total!

Not that I am going to change my PBJ-making procedure: Use only one utensil (knife) to ladle and spread, and eyeball the amounts.

But I am comforted to know that I am following the recipe stated by the authorities (hey, it's printed on the jars!) and the Optimum Ratio of Peanut Butter to Jelly in a Sandwich is: 2-ro-1

Dave