A peanut butter and banana, sometimes referred to as an Elvis sandwich or simply the Elvis, consists of toasted bread slices with peanut butter

Peanut butter

Peanut butter is a food paste made primarily from ground dry roasted peanuts, popular in North America, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and parts of Asia, particularly the Philippines and Indonesia. It is mainly used as a sandwich spread, sometimes in combination as in the peanut butter and jelly...

, sliced banana

Banana

Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....

, and fried bacon

Bacon

Bacon is a cured meat prepared from a pig. It is first cured using large quantities of salt, either in a brine or in a dry packing; the result is fresh bacon . Fresh bacon may then be further dried for weeks or months in cold air, boiled, or smoked. Fresh and dried bacon must be cooked before eating...

. Honey

Honey

Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...

 is sometimes included. The sandwich is frequently cooked in a pan or on a griddle

Griddle

A griddle is a cooking device consisting of a broad flat surface that can be heated using a variety of means, and is used in both residential and commercial applications for a variety of cooking operations. Most commonly, the griddle consists of a flat metal plate, but in the non-industrialized...

.

The recipe for the sandwich has been published in numerous cookbooks and newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 stories. It is sold commercially in restaurants that specialize in peanut butter sandwiches, such as Peanut Butter & Co.

Peanut Butter & Co.

Peanut Butter & Co. is a sandwich shop in Greenwich Village, New York City that was founded in 1998 by Lee Zalben. Its menu primarily consists of peanut butter sandwiches and other items made with peanut butter....

History

The peanut butter and banana sandwich with bacon has been referred to as a favorite of Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

, who was renowned for his food cravings such as the Fool's Gold Loaf

Fool's Gold Loaf

Fool's Gold Loaf is a sandwich made by the Colorado Mine Company, a five-star restaurant in Denver, Colorado. The sandwich consists of a single warmed, hollowed-out loaf of bread filled with one jar of creamy peanut butter, one jar of grape jelly, and a pound of bacon. The name of the sandwich is...

, a loaf of Italian bread filled with a pound of bacon, peanut butter, and grape jelly. Books on Elvis Presley's favorite foods and culinary tastes, as well as other published reports on his taste for peanut butter and banana sandwiches with or without bacon, have made the sandwich widely associated with Presley. It is often referred to using his name.

Presley's fondness for peanut butter and banana sandwiches is well established, but bacon is not mentioned in all accounts. A book about Presley and his mother, Gladys Presley, though, says he had "sandwich after sandwich of his favorite—peanut butter, sliced bananas, and crisp bacon". Another passage describes him talking "feverishly until dawn" while "wolfing" down the sandwiches (described in this instance as being made with mashed banana).

A news report suggests that, based on renditions of sandwiches named after him, Presley ate his peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwiches with caramelized

Caramelization

Caramelization is the browning of sugar, a process used extensively in cooking for the resulting nutty flavor and brown color. As the process occurs, volatile chemicals are released, producing the characteristic caramel flavor....

 bananas and crispy bacon on grilled Hawaiian bread, and grilled by his mother or his cook in bacon fat. The Good, the Bad, and the Yummy describes it as consisting of half a banana and a piece of bacon per sandwich, browning the sandwiches in a frying pan with butter, cutting the sandwiches into wedges, and piling them high.

Popularity among other celebrities

New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 Mayor

Mayor of New York City

The Mayor of the City of New York is head of the executive branch of New York City's government. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property, police and fire protection, most public agencies, and enforces all city and state laws within New York City.The budget overseen by the...

 Michael Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg

Michael Rubens Bloomberg is the current Mayor of New York City. With a net worth of $19.5 billion in 2011, he is also the 12th-richest person in the United States...

 said that he would select a peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich as his "last meal

Last meal

The last meal is a customary part of a condemned prisoner's last day. Often, the day of, or before, the appointed time of execution, the prisoner receives a last meal, as well as religious rites, if they desire. In the United States, inmates generally may not ask for an alcoholic drink...

," using toasted Wonder Bread

Wonder Bread

Wonder Bread is the name of three North American brands of white bread: One produced by George Weston Bakeries in Canada, another by Hostess Brands in the United States, and the third by Grupo Bimbo in Mexico.- United States :...

, melted Skippy Super Chunky, banana slices, and bacon. The subject came up when Bloomberg was discussing Philadelphia cheesesteak

Cheesesteak

A cheesesteak, also known as a Philadelphia cheesesteak, Philly cheesesteak, cheese steak, or steak and cheese, is a sandwich made from thinly-sliced pieces of steak and melted cheese in a long roll...

 with Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell

Ed Rendell

Edward Gene "Ed" Rendell is an American politician who served as the 45th Governor of Pennsylvania. Rendell, a member of the Democratic Party, was elected Governor of Pennsylvania in 2002, and his term of office began January 21, 2003...

.

Singer songwriter Lisa Loeb

Lisa Loeb

Lisa Anne Loeb is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She launched her career in 1994 with the song, "Stay ". She was the first artist to have a number one single in the United States while not signed to a recording contract.Loeb's efforts now include music, film, television, voice-over...

 shared "a concoction of peanut butter, banana, honey and bacon" called "an Elvis" on a date with the man she married, Roey Hershkovitz.

Variants

A variant on the peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwich is the peanut butter banana club sandwich, which combines the sandwich with a club sandwich

Club sandwich

A club sandwich, also called a clubhouse sandwich or double-decker, is a sandwich with two layers of fillings between 3 slices of toasted bread. It is often cut into quarters and held together by hors d'œuvre sticks....

 by adding lettuce

Lettuce

Lettuce is a temperate annual or biennial plant of the daisy family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable. It is eaten either raw, notably in salads, sandwiches, hamburgers, tacos, and many other dishes, or cooked, as in Chinese cuisine in which the stem becomes just as important...

, brown sugar

Brown sugar

Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown color due to the presence of molasses. It is either an unrefined or partially refined soft sugar consisting of sugar crystals with some residual molasses content, or it is produced by the addition of molasses to refined white...

 and lemon juice

Lemon juice

The lemon fruit, from a citrus plant, provides a useful liquid when squeezed. Lemon juice, either in natural strength or concentrated, is sold as a bottled product, usually with the addition of preservatives and a small amount of lemon oil.-Uses:...

. Another version of the sandwich was sold under the name The Memphis at the "all peanut butter sandwich" restaurant P.B. Loco prior to the company going out of business, which has honey and substitutes bacon bits for the strips of bacon.

The sandwich is also included as a decadent option for a sandwich in a cooking for dogs cookbook. Alternative fillings suggested include sweet potato, carrots, pumpkin, and apples.

Another variation is to add honey to the sandwich.

External links

• Recipe from Food Network