Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter

We found the best peanut-butter reviews five years apart from Cook's Illustrated, a magazine that specializes in food and cookware, accepts no advertising and thoroughly tests whatever it evaluates. We also found helpful reviews from the St. Petersburg Times, The Washington Post and Newsday, three large daily newspapers with good food sections (meaning less reliance on wire-service copy than most).

Skippy Creamy is a processed peanut butter; it has hydrogenated fat, sugar and salt added, unlike "natural" peanut butters. But it pleases professionals and children, placing at the top or close to it in virtually every review, including one using children ages 8 to 13 as tasters. What pleases the palate are the sweet yet salty additions to the "nuttiness," the aroma and the familiar smooth texture. A 2001 rating by Cook's Illustrated scores the peanut butters according to their taste "raw," in a peanut sauce and in peanut butter cookies. Skippy's placed third "raw" behind Reese's (*est. $3.10 for 18 ounces) and Jif (*est. $3.15 for 18 ounces), but won the other categories. Of course, if you want something less sugary, try a natural peanut better like Smucker's Natural (*est. $4.15 for 16 ounces).