You know it's Friday at 4 pm when the @NYTimes Cooking team publishes this recipe. https://t.co/wCm5CyWpgZ pic.twitter.com/Ziybdfjl6O

— Greg Rosalsky (@elliswonk) April 6, 2018

Why would the NYT do this? Twitter brainstormed some explanations.

when the social team gets high on Friday and never switches to their personal accounts https://t.co/rdmXrGqBTV

— BUM CHILLUPS (@edsbs) April 6, 2018

Some people just want to watch the world burn

— Veera Kaukoniemi (@vkaukoni) April 6, 2018

Regardless, the internet did NOT approve.

 pic.twitter.com/t1UFXHPDHZ

— Michael Tannenbaum (@iamTannenbaum) April 6, 2018

please put this behind a paywall

— Honorary Boyband Member™ (@broazay) April 6, 2018

Even some New York Times staff were pretty upset by the recipe.

I’m quitting.

— Farhad Manjoo (@fmanjoo) April 6, 2018

But just when it seemed the recipe was universally abhorred, fans began creeping out of the woodwork.

Say what you will...But peanut butter and pickle on a cracker is my favorite snack! A whole sandwich? Yeah, maybe not! pic.twitter.com/930mJ0sjYU

— Audrey (@audreyfsisson) April 6, 2018

I grew up eating them. Dill pickles only.

— trudy stachowiak (@stackingboxes) April 6, 2018

A delicious peanut butter and pickle sandwich to start the day off! pic.twitter.com/Oexi6vqjig

— Brian Murphy (@Brian_Murphy_) March 26, 2018

And sure enough, before long people began getting curious...

i would eat the peanut butter and pickle sandwich

— (((Ian Phillips))) (@IanReelDeal) April 6, 2018

Jamie just informed me that she eats peanut butter with her pickles pic.twitter.com/TpwMrvDBnH

— sydney (@sydney_amber13) April 6, 2018

The author of the recipe penned an essay about PB&P sandwiches for the NYT in 2012. He describes them as an American classic:

My father passed them down to me. Peanut butter and pickle sandwiches got him through law school at West Virginia University. I've come to consider them the work-at-home writer's friend. The ingredients are always there for you, waiting loyally in the pantry when more glamorous lunch options (cold cuts, leftovers) aren't returning your calls.

The PB&P has been a minority enthusiasm in America for generations, lingering just under the radar. The sandwiches appeared on lunch-counter menus during the Great Depression and in extension-service cookbooks in the 1930s and '40s in recipes that generally called for a few spoonfuls of pickle relish. A lot of people's grandmothers used to eat them.

Despite this, many retained their...skepticism.

 pic.twitter.com/j834tqjMtk

— Orlando Magic Tanking Enthusiast (@abt05c) April 6, 2018

Some believe it's the worst recipe the Times has ever suggested.

And this isn't even the first time in recent memory the NYT has suggested culinary madness.

This is worse than the peas in guacamole https://t.co/eqYjwPzJp4

— Mary Ellen McIntire (@MelMcIntire) April 6, 2018

Which led one Twitter user to a novel idea!

In summary:

H/T - Twitter, The New York Times, The New York Times