As a career-long cook, I can say that there are a few kitchen tasks I’ll forever avoid if I can help it, and one of those is using a butter knife to stir up a brand-new jar of natural peanut butter. (Two others are turning artichokes and removing pin bones from fish fillets.)
But the trouble is that I go through a lot of peanut butter, and fate inevitably draws me back to stirring broken peanut paste into a cohesive spread. Even as I write this, I shudder at the sensory nightmare of oil sloshing onto the countertop—and coating my hands—as I try to incorporate it into the peanut solids with a subpar instrument.
If I had to endure this messy job only when opening a brand-new jar of natural peanut butter, I’d probably just suck it up and power through. But I went through 15 jars while testing for our guide to the best creamy peanut butter. And even your home PB jar needs re-stirring several times during its stint in your cupboard.
I also frequently cook with tahini, which is arguably more of a pain to stir because the ground sesame seeds seem to create a denser, more concrete-like sediment than peanuts do.
Looking at a new jar of peanut butter or tahini in my cabinet always elicited my saddest and heaviest of sighs—until I discovered the Grandpa Witmer’s Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Mixer. It makes clean and quick work of turning a jar of separated natural peanut butter (or tahini) into a delicious homogenous goo.
Top pick
This handy tool stirs natural peanut butter without the usual mess and is available in a size for every style of peanut butter jar. Be sure to get the one that fits your preferred peanut butter.
Full disclosure: I scoffed at the Witmer mixer when I first saw it kicking around in a random utensil drawer in a Martha Stewart test kitchen I worked in many, many years ago. My skepticism was immediately met with a resounding “That thing is genius!” from my fellow food editors. So I gave it a whirl (puns!), and as I saw it seamlessly blend together the oil and peanuts, I instantly became a convert. Never have I ever warmed so quickly to a kitchen unitasker.
The Witmer mixer design is simple: It’s just an S-hook with a crank threaded through a lid that screws onto the peanut butter jar. But that’s all that’s necessary to effectively mix up the peanut butter while keeping all the messy, sloshy oil contained.
Getting your peanut butter mostly mixed together takes about two minutes of cranking. I say “mostly” because some jars have stubborn little crevices that the hook can’t reach. If you’re like me and can’t rest until the job is complete, you can work those errant peanut solids loose with an offset palette knife (you know, the one you might have buried in the back of your kitchen’s catch-all drawer).
I’ve found that the best way to get the most thorough mix with the Witmer mixer is to use it with the jar upright for about 30 seconds and then turn the jar upside down and mix for another 30 seconds. Repeat that process once more, and you’re golden. And don’t worry about any oil leaking out through the hole in the lid—a rubber gasket keeps everything inside the jar.
Remember the aforementioned tahini? The Witmer mixer makes quick work of that, too. Just make sure to buy tahini in a jar with a mouth that fits one of the Witmer lid sizes. Witmer makes three sizes: model 100 for 16-ounce wide-mouth jars, model 300 for 16-ounce small-mouth jars (including our pick, Teddie All-Natural, and Smuckers), and model 400 for 26-ounce jars, which the Teddie PB also comes in, as does Costco’s almond butter. If you’re unsure about which size to get, this handy PDF list from Witmer shows peanut butters by brand and the models that fit their respective jars.
Another detail that I love about the Witmer mixer is the little rubber gasket in the lid, which scrapes the hook clean when you disassemble the device. When you’re done mixing your peanut butter, just pull the crank and stirrer up and out of the jar, and then remove the lid. Et voilà! Disassemble the components inside the lid—a plastic disc and rubber gasket—and wash everything in warm soapy water. I find that a dish brush works best to get peanut butter out of the threads and center hole.
Even though I initially bristled at the idea of another one-trick-pony gadget taking up space in an already-packed kitchen drawer, I’m so glad that I gave this mixer a chance. And if you’re a fan of natural nut and seed butters, the Grandpa Witmer’s Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Mixer decidedly takes the frustration out of turning them into consistent spreads.
This article was edited by Alexander Aciman and Catherine Kast.
