Peanut butter revolution

BY SALLY KIDSON

In an old factory in a Stoke industrial estate a peanut butter revolution is under way.

Pic Picot always gets a kick out of people reading the ingredient list on the label of his peanut butter.

It is so simple - Aussie peanuts and salt, or just peanuts in the salt-free version - that people often do a double take.

"There's no other muck added," Picot says of his Pic's Really Good Peanut Butter.

Picot is a "huge" peanut butter fan - he and his family (partner Sandy and son Louis) usually devour about one kilogram of the gooey brown spread a week.

He says he was driven to making his own peanut butter after discovering, in line with trends in the US, peanut butter sold in New Zealand contained a lot of sugar.

He was also uneasy that many brands were made in China and not only did they contain sugar, "but they were chucking emulsifiers, antioxidants and litres of unspecified oil in there as well".

About three years ago he was about to phone an 0800 number to complain about store-brand peanut butter yet again when he decided to take matters into his own hands, he says.

"I bought a 10kg bag of peanuts and started roasting and grinding."

The result, he says, was yummo and before long he was selling it to friends and family and then at the Nelson market.

Since then he has branched out to sell it through Nelson's Collingwood St Fresh Choice, 20 South Island supermarkets and a handful of specialty stores in the North Island.

His website ensures peanut butter devotees around the country are able to get their fix by mail.

Picot shifted production from the family home to part of an old factory in the Wakatu industrial estate last year, where he and his "hugely enthusiastic" factory manager Craig Dawkins work side by side gently roasting and grinding peanuts sourced from a Queensland estate.

He shares his facilities with Owen and Kaye Pope, who used to run the jam company Anathoth, and now make Pope Jam.

In a story that has parallels with the first chapters of the Popes' story, demand for Picot's homestyle product has grown so much, he needs to expand.

He's ordered "scarily expensive" new machinery from China and now needs the entire factory space he leases, so the Popes are moving on to premises in the Moutere.

"When I set it up, I said `I'll just make it and keep it small' ... I said I don't want to get into forklifts and invoicing stuff, but it's exciting," he says.

Picot is effusive about his butter and is clearly chuffed at the positive feedback he receives.

"I get emails and phone calls from people thanking me for making it. It's wonderful."

At present, he makes his batches using second-hand machinery he's cobbled together, including a roaster made from a converted concrete mixer. He estimates he makes 400kg of peanut butter a week.

With the arrival of the new machinery he expects to be able make five times that amount, or two tonnes a week.

"I have discovered that I love retailing, and the feedback I get from the people I meet at the market has convinced me, despite an original determination to keep the business small, to crank it up.

"I occasionally worry about expanding at a time when everyone else is retrenching, but I figure that a recession is a good time to grab market share. People have to eat and we are having a lot of fun."

Picot's father was a founder of grocery giant Progressive Enterprises and Picot says he always "poo-pooed having something to do with groceries".

A jack of all trades, he came to making peanut butter after undertaking a varied array of jobs.

After dropping out of architecture school, he made leather bags and sandals before travelling. Back home he had a stint driving buses in Auckland and worked in a garage, before making furniture for three years.

He then went into giftware, making novelty "panic boxes", such as boxes containing a cigarette with a glass top advising owners to smash the glass in times of emergency.

He's also been involved with yachting, building a yacht and sailing around the Pacific for a couple of years. He started a sailing school in Nelson and set up and still owns what he describes as a Trade Me-type website for charter boats.

His gift for marketing is evident in his "terrifyingly successful" amnesty he ran allowing customers to bring in their Chinese-made peanut butter for a 200g jar of his own and the quirky peanut butter labels he prints himself on brown craft paper run.

The back of his labels contain poems by his alter-ego Bill Smith, (Picot attended a creative writing course at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology).

Even though his business is rapidly expanding Picot is adamant the product won't change.

"I wouldn't think of changing the nuts or anything. I don't know why it works, but it does and I don't want to mess with it."

For more information visit www.reallygood.co.nz.

ELVIS KILLER: THE NEW YORK STACK (Fried peanut-butter sandwich)
This recipe from Pic Picot's website was given to him by Barbara Olsen-Henderson, a New Plymouth restaurateur and owner of Bach on Beachwater.

• Spread two pieces of bread - Burgen raisin bread is better than Vogels because it is more absorbent - with your peanut butter: a normal nice, thick amount on one side and very thick on the other.
• Slice a banana in half then split the halves lengthwise and lay these quarters side by side on the bread.
• Dip each side briefly in eggy batter (one egg whisked with half a cup of milk) then fry in butter.
• Replenish the butter in the pan when you turn the sandwich over. The banana doesn't get cooked and mushy - it's only lightly warm when it's done.
• Cut in half diagonally and stack on a plate. Drizzle generously with maple syrup and dust with icing sugar and cinnamon.

KAY'S REALLY GOOD PEANUT BUTTER CHOC CHIP COOKIES

200g Pic's Really Good Peanut Butter
200g softened butter
1 cup soft light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
250g chopped chocolate (preferably dark)
3 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt

• Preheat the oven to 180 degC.
• In a large bowl, using a wooden spoon or in an electric mixer, beat the peanut butter, soft butter, sugar and vanilla extract until soft and creamy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then add the chocolate. Sift in flour, baking soda and salt and stir to mix.
• Roll heaped teaspoonfuls of the dough in your hands to form balls, then place them spaced apart on baking trays (there is no need to grease or line the tray).
• Bake in the oven for 12-16 minutes until golden in colour. Carefully lift them off the trays when cooked and place on a wire rack to cool.
• The recipe makes loads of cookies, but you don't have to bake them all at once. Just roll your dough into log shapes about 2cm in diameter and store in the fridge (for up to one week) or in the freezer for up to three months.

- © Fairfax NZ News