About ten years ago my husband told me, “I used to eat fluff sandwiches when I was a kid.” I don’t know how it came up. We had been dating for a few years at the time. I laughed heartily. We had a weird exchange that I’m going to recreate for you below:
Girlfriend Q: “That’s funny.”
Boyfriend Q with a blank stare ::pause:: “No, I ate fluff sandwiches. For real.”
Girlfriend Q at a loss, “What is fluff?”
Boyfriend Q: “You don’t know what Fluff is?”
Girlfriend Q: “No, never heard of it. What is it?”
That jar of Fluff sat for a long time. He never opened it. It got pushed to the back of the cabinet and I found it when we were packing up for a move. The contents had separated and it was opened for the first time only so that the contents could be tipped into the garbage and the glass jar recycled. My first and last experience with Fluff. I think of it as a regional food.
Do you know what Fluff is? Do you eat it? Any guesses on where my husband grew up?
Marshmallow Fluff may be eaten in the mid west and down south but it is totally a New England thing. It was first made in some guys kitchen in Somerville. He lost interest in making it after WW1 sold the formula to a couple of guys who made the product as it's known today in a factory in East Lynn, MA.
Marshmallow fluff is what you get when you make marshmallows before they set up. I imagine that the store versions use slightly different ingredients to keep it fluffy for a while, but if you want fluff just follow a recipe for marshmallows and don't do the last few steps 🙂 They're surprisingly simple to make.
I grew up on this stuff in Atlanta, although we had the Jet-Puff brand of marshmallow fluff. Still called them Fluffanutters, and I had no idea why until just now.
I did not grow up on Fluff but, being from the Midwest, I have had it. I had a friend who would eat Peanut Butter and Marshmallow Fluff sandwiches. I had one once. It wasn’t terrible.
I still eat fluff-usually with peanut butter either on toast or graham crackers.
I used to eat fluffanutters and occasionally give them to my kids too. It’s got to be better than the school lunches here. My daughter is 11 and for K-4th grade she had a packed lunch everyday. Both kids have dairy allergies so it was a necessity because I was too nervous to let them eat anything else. There is so much “junk food” as well as decent food that they can’t have that the occasional fluff sandwich is their substitute.
I’m from the Chicago area and fluff & peanut butter was a common (and favorite!) sandwich for my brother and I when we were kids.
I grew up in MI and we had fluff and pb on toast or Graham crackers. Once a year or so I’ll buy a jar for old times sake.
I grew up in Jersey and I still eat Nutella and Fluff sandwiches. They taste so good!
ps- If you toast the bread and everything gets all melty its like a GIANT s’more.
There’s actually a Fluff Festival every year in Massachusetts, which, as mentioned previously, is the home state of Fluff.
http://unionsquaremain.org/fluff-festival/
For my part as a kid, I came up with an inventive use for Fluff. In the winter, when nostalgic for s’mores, I would spread a layer of Fluff on a Fudge Stripe Cookie, then sandwich another cookie on top and zap it in the microwave for 30 seconds. It was delicious.
Ha! I just stumbled on your Fluff post and I’m kind of tickled by reading it. I grew up in Boston, and while I did not eat it as a child, my father (who also grew up in Boston) did. I find two things about Marshmallow fluff to be amazing:
1. From a design point of view, the packaging is beautiful! The graphics of the label – colour combo of two tones of blue, the type face -; the shape of the jar; the letters that are embossed in the glass (they still use real glass jars!) at the neck of the jar; the red lid. It’s amazing design and I love the fact that the design has remained the same for so many years!
2. If you read the list of ingredients on the label it is shockingly simple: basically corn syrup, sugar and egg whites – no preservatives or stabilizers.
So, while I don’t generally consume Fluff, I have a great appreciation for it.
Fluff may not be the healthiest thing for you.
On it’s own it’s positively foul.
But when I get really, really sad, it’s an essential ingredient to creating the ultimate comfort food: The Ghostie Toastie.
Toast
Fluffy
Crunchy Skippy.
Eaten maybe once or twice a year because, seeing as how I’m not seven anymore, I know they’re terrible for you. But Mmph, are they nummy.
I used to eat peanut butter and fluff sandwiches when I was a kid. We lived in NYC!