“Eew,” e-mailed Virginia Willis, the author of “Bon Appétit, Y’all: Recipes and Stories From Three Generations of Southern Cooking.” Ms. Willis added, “Sounds kind of scary.” A friend of mine, an editor at a major national food monthly, wrote me back to say, “Even at 7 months pregnant, I’ve never had that craving.” Another well-known cookbook writer suggested I talk to Guy Fieri, the Sammy Hagar of TV chefs.

Guy Fieri? That’s harsh, dude.

My desperation increasing, I reached out to two men who, between them, know pretty much everything there is to know about eating in America, at least east of the Mississippi: Ed Levine, founder of the Web site Serious Eats, and John T. Edge, the director of the Southern Foodways Alliance and the guru of Dixie eats. (He also contributes regularly to The New York Times.)

Neither of these guys had eaten a PB&P, either. (“Slackers,” I muttered to myself.) Mr. Edge declared that, despite all the uncouth yet awesome preparations Southerners have for pickles (deep-frying them, coloring them with Kool-Aid flavor packets), the peanut butter and pickle sandwich is definitely not a Southern thing. Flipping through his mental Rolodex, he sounded stumped for a bit. He finally sent me to talk to a young chef in Minneapolis who does a peanut butter and grilled jalapeño appetizer, which sounds tasty but is not the same thing at all.

Unlike Mr. Edge, Mr. Levine volunteered to lose his PB&P virginity, pretty much right on the spot. About the peanut butter sandwich he made with bread-and-butter pickles, he declared, “I could see eating that again.” About a peanut butter with garlic dill pickles sandwich, he said, “Not so much.”

Mr. Levine is right: bread-and-butter pickles are more sublime in a PB&P than kosher dills. Their sweetness adds a flavor bump; they function like a briny, sophisticated, adult version of jelly.

In my quest for the perfect peanut butter and pickle sandwich, I’ve made these things with expensive hipster pickles, homely farmers’ market ones and my wife’s artful homemade beauties. They’re all pretty good.

But my go-to ingredients, month in and month out, are Claussen pickles, the ones in the refrigerator section — they’re crunchy and have a bright flavor — and Smucker’s Natural peanut butter, which isn’t sweet. (I’m agnostic about crunchy versus smooth.) I use whatever good bread is in the house. If I’m feeling decadent, I’ll toast the bread first and spread some unsalted butter on each slice before adding the PB&P. That’s genius, and the prelude to a tasty nap.