What the Fluff?!

September 24, 2010 9:48 AM

In honor of the fifth annual Fluff festival (tomorrow afternoon in Union Square, Somerville, MA), I bear gifts: • Fluff Rum Sauce (and other recipes via the Online Yummy Book) • A Flufferettes jingle (.mp3, via that old dusty web-tome, History of Marshmallow Fluff, unfortunately not subtitled "The sticky path from Somerville to Lynn") • And a Fluffernutter. (complete with "radically extreme" 90's TV ad)

More Fluffy sweetness:

• A Trip to the Fluff Factory! (Links to the better second-half of a stop-motion animated nostalgic recollection that looks like it was made by stoned college kids with access to a film camera.)

• Lynn, MA is now the home to the Fluff manufacturing plant. In this episode of "Is It a Good Idea to Microwave This?" (whose co-host is also from Lynn), Fluff is found to expand in the microwave. (Warning: puerile sex/poop jokes included)

• Ghost Cupcakes for Halloween!

posted by not_on_display (25 comments total)

As I kid, I loved Fluffernutters (with tomato soup and a glass of milk) on Saturday afternoons, only! As an adult, yeeech!
posted by ericb at 9:55 AM on September 24, 2010

damn, thought it was fluffing!
posted by the_very_hungry_caterpillar at 9:58 AM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh man, a Fluff festival! That's great!

I had the occasional Fluffernutter as a kid, but rediscovered the joys of Fluff in college, when a friend confessed that she'd never had it before. So naturally, I had to buy a tub of it, even though I wasn't sure if I would be able to eat it all in a reasonable timeframe.

As it turns out, I had nothing to worry about -- I quickly discovered that a really stellar late-night bite-sized treat is:
- half spoonful of Fluff
- half spoonful of peanut butter
- 2 or three chocolate chips
posted by Greg Nog at 10:00 AM on September 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

I fluff you.
posted by acheekymonkey at 10:06 AM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

It never occurred to me that the solution to gelatin free rice krispy treats was to use fluff instead of marshmallow.

I never had a fluffernutter, I'm not sure it's worth it at this point, I should have been a greedier child, some things are only appreciated with that sickly sweet tooth palate.
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:07 AM on September 24, 2010

damn, thought it was fluffing!

Personally, I am greatly relieved that in this day and age the term "fluffernutter" has retained its original meaning and hasn't been Rule 34'd into something horrible.

(and if it has been, PLEASE don't tell me. I have to have some illusions left intact.)
posted by briank at 10:12 AM on September 24, 2010

So naturally, I had to buy a tub of it, even though I wasn't sure if I would be able to eat it all in a reasonable timeframe.

No reason to worry--it's made of plastic, isn't it?
posted by Melismata at 10:20 AM on September 24, 2010

"No reason to worry--it's made of plastic, isn't it?"
 --Melismata

According to the "Flufferently" Asked Questions section:

Marshmallow Fluff contains Corn Syrup, Sugar Syrup, Dried Egg Whites and Vanillin.

Strawberry Fluff contains Corn Syrup, Sugar Syrup, Dried Egg Whites, Artificial Flavor, Red 40, Carmel Color.

Raspberry Fluff contains Corn Syrup, Sugar Syrup, Dried Egg Whites, Artificial Flavor, Red 3, Red 40, Blue 1.

There are no artificial preservatives, stabilizers or emulsifiers in any of our products.

Also, it's kosher!
posted by not_on_display at 10:41 AM on September 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

I never had a fluffernutter, I'm not sure it's worth it at this point

It is. But, defying tradition, you ought to use real bread and peanut butter, not Wonderbread and Jif. I came to the Fluffernutter much too late, too, but goddamn if it isn't delicious.
posted by uncleozzy at 10:49 AM on September 24, 2010

I love the concept of fluffernutters, but I don't like them in practice because they're messy, it's a crazy amount of sugar, and I am no longer 8 years old.

I switched it up a little and served the combo at a party once (fulfilling a special guest-of-honor request) on saltines with a thin slice of strawberry on top. There was a fair amount of food leftover at the end of the night, but there wasn't a single fluffernutter canapé left. There's a lesson in there somewhere... I think it has to do with how much money I spent on the artisan cheeses and the "good wine."

The little canapés paired surprisingly well with Bell's Amber Ale, though.
posted by heyho at 11:27 AM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

But, defying tradition, you ought to use real bread and peanut butter, not Wonderbread and Jif.

I'm a live and let live kind of guy, and there's lots of room in the Fluffernutter tent, but your views are troubling and wrong.
posted by dirtdirt at 11:30 AM on September 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

I attended the Fluff Festival last year with my husband and a friend. A restaurant in the square was serving Fluff Cocktails. I didn't partake as I was pregnant at the time, but they were vodka-based and just looked and smelled so very wrong.

I plan to take a stroll through this year, but more for the scenery than for the Fluff.
posted by tetralix at 11:55 AM on September 24, 2010

not Wonderbread

Wrong wrong wrong wrong. Oh, and it has to be crunchy peanut butter.

Cue Homer Simpson guttural, drooling yummy sound. You know the one.
posted by cosmac at 12:10 PM on September 24, 2010

Yeah, I know, it's wrong, it's wrong, but really: decent auxiliary ingredients elevate the fluffernutter. It's not like I'm drinking cold vodka and calling it a Martini, here. I'm just asking that you don't use gin from a plastic jug.

But yeah, crunchy peanut butter, definitely.
posted by uncleozzy at 12:18 PM on September 24, 2010

Problem with Wonderbread I had as a kid was it always ripped when slathering on the crunchy peanut butter and Fluff.
posted by ericb at 12:47 PM on September 24, 2010

The problem I had with Wonderbread as a kid was that by the time it was handed to me with all the thick slathered crunchy peanut butter and Fluff, it was almost as thin as paper. (Didn't stop it from being delicious of course.)
posted by Melismata at 12:55 PM on September 24, 2010

how about kids + fluff
posted by eyeheartyou at 12:57 PM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

I bet a fluffernutter grilled like a grilled cheese would be good. Even Elvis-worthy, maybe!
posted by not_on_display at 1:08 PM on September 24, 2010

See, this is why I said there's lots of room in the Fluffernutter tent - because I've had this baffling conversation before, and I am clearly in the minority. But, since a man more right than his neighbors is a majority of one I will try to talk some sense into you.

CRUNCHY peanut butter? Really? So, you've got the sooper-smooth plasticine texture Wonder bread, you've got the heavenly sooooper-smooooth ivory white fluff, and then you go and botch the whole operation by using crunchy peanut butter? For real? Might as well put a booger in there too, while you are at it.

Sorry about the booger thing. Talking Fluffernutter awakens my (only slightly dormant) inner ten year old.
posted by dirtdirt at 1:14 PM on September 24, 2010

Problem with Wonderbread I had as a kid was it always ripped when slathering on the crunchy peanut butter and Fluff.

That's why you should spread the peanut butter on the bread, then the fluff on the peanut butter!
posted by Riptor at 1:14 PM on September 24, 2010

Or stick the peanut butter in the microwave just long enough to make it less viscous.
posted by BrotherCaine at 1:32 PM on September 24, 2010

how about kids + fluff

That video is FANTASTIC!
posted by ericb at 2:30 PM on September 24, 2010

To quote a friend, "Enough of them wake up covered in marshmallow cream, they'll learn."
posted by strixus at 3:23 PM on September 24, 2010

This is fantastic! Also, I had no idea that people managed to make actual food out of fluff.. Any time I bought this, I never got past eating it right out of the container..
posted by Mael Oui at 7:28 PM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yecchh. Never liked Fluff--couldn't get past that cloying artificial vanilla flavor.
posted by kinnakeet at 6:04 AM on September 25, 2010