Surely this can’t be true, y’all. I’ve expounded on 114 topics and have yet to discuss Crisco? In my defense, I’ve lived outside the South for nearly two decades and have encountered this Dixie staple just about as often as I’ve seen folks back home wearing sweaters in July. (Not counting anybody in my sister’s house where the air-conditioner’s always set to “Arctic.”)
I’m happy to note that during my time as an expat, I’ve never once had a run-in with Crisco’s ugly step-sister, Butter-Flavored Crisco. While friends and longtime readers probably already know this, I feel I should mention that I’m vehemently opposed to butter-flavored anything that doesn’t derive said flavor from actual, made-from-cow-milk butter.
Don’t forget to add Crisco!
Whoever I fed those cookies to, I apologize. My bad. My very, very bad.
But back to Crisco, regular flavor. As far as I know, Crisco mainly serves two functions in Southern kitchens: deep frying and pie-crust making. That’s why you’ll often find a photo of crispy chicken or a double-crusted pie on the can. I can see how picturing just a glob of Crisco on the label might be detrimental to sales.
White wedding:
courtesy of Crisco?
Recently, I listened to a podcast that talked about the history of Crisco (not for research or anything, just because I’m nerdy like that). Turns out that two factors greatly contributed to its invention: Sinclair Lewis and the light bulb. The popularity of Lewis’ The Jungle (an expose on the meat packing industry disguised as a novel) made folks a bit leery of lard with passages such as:
They worked in tank rooms full of steam, and in some of which there were open vats near the level of the floor…. their peculiar trouble was that they fell into the vats; and when they were fished out, there was never enough of them left to be worth exhibiting, sometimes they would be overlooked for days, till all but the bones of them had gone out to the world as Durham’s Pure Leaf Lard!
Yum! And the light bulb? Thanks to that handy invention, Procter and Gamble’s candle sales were flickering out, and they had an abundance of cottonseed oil nobody knew what to do with…
Until! A German chemist named E.C. Kayser showed up with a ball of fat he’d concocted in a lab. Yes, folks, this was the start of hydrogenation.
From Better Homes & Gardens, December 1934
100 years later and folks still rely on Crisco for frying, baking, greasing up
pigs at the fair and whatnot. As Loretta Lynn told us in the 80’s “Crisco’ll do you proud every time!”
Do you use Crisco? Tub or sticks? What for? Please keep it PG, people.
Photo credits: Crisco can circa 1970 by RoadsidePictures, Flickr Creative Commons; cookie dough by Sara R, Flickr Creative Commons; wedding cake by Graceful Cake Creations, Flickr Creative Commons
stuff southern people like 
I use Crisco occasionally, but I remember my grandmother regularly used a similar product called Sno-Drift – which I haven’t seen in many years.
I thought the name “Crisco” was a little out there, then along comes “Sno-Drift”?
Oh Dear Lord in Heaven! You make me laugh every time! In 19 years of being a grown-up married person, I’ve bought exactly one can of Crisco, and I think it’s still buried somewhere in my pantry!
I can’t stand eating cakes iced with the stuff. I guess if I fried more things I would use it more.
Glad you mentioned the greased pigs, because that’s where I’ve seen it used the most!
I must admit I’ve never personally seen a greased pig. It’s been on my to-do list for a while. Sadly, I missed the pig races at the MS state fair again this year…
I can’t believe you didn’t mention that biscuits are made with Crisco…I know no other way! I also wanted to try using Crisco to make fried chicken since I re-watched the Help the other day and Minnie swore by it (I know, I know, Kim…you are not a fan of the Help…still don’t know why!).
If you watch cooking shows like I do you would see that Lard is back on an upswing and I have actually thought about buying some (hopefully it is human free now), I am not sure what I would use it for though…just one of those things I want because I think the cooking shows are cool (thus showing my nerd side as well).
Regarding the Butter Flavored variety…Kim, I will tell you that I watched a “Good Eats” with Alton Brown where he made several different kinds of Chocolate Chip Cookies (some flat, some crisp, some fluffy, some chewy, all looking good). Anyway, in one of the recipes he actually used Butter Flavored Crisco! I can’t remember his reasoning, but he had one…maybe you got the recipe from him or if you want to feel important, you can pretend that you sent the recipe to him since you obviously don’t mind taking credit for others recipes!
Oh, I’m thrilled that Alton used my butter-flavored Crisco cookie recipe! (Went with option B…)
I’ve never made biscuits with Crisco, just butter and sour cream or butter and buttermilk. Maybe that’s what I’m doing wrong!
Lard is all the rage here in Seattle (we’re having something of a pig renaissance). However, folks use some sort of hippie substitute for Crisco, due to the hydrogenation factor. I saw a demonstration the other day of pie crust made with palm oil shortening, which was said to be “easier to digest.” Had to stifle a laugh: what, more digestible than “digestible” Crisco?
A pig renaissance, really? Funny stuff. Yes, I use Crisco; to grease the pan when baking.
Oh yes. Folks around these parts are responsible for creating Bacon Salt, Baconaise, and my personal favorite, Bacon Jam. Oh, and folks at the office where I occasionally do freelance work had a bacon bake-off. I’d never in my life seen so much bacon in one place… For the record the “bac-lava” (baklava made with bacon) took first prize.
“Recently, I listened to a podcast that talked about the history of Crisco (not for research or anything, just because I’m nerdy like that). Turns out that two factors greatly contributed to its invention: Sinclair Lewis and the light bulb. The popularity of Lewis’ The Jungle (an expose on the meat packing industry disguised as a novel) made folks a bit leery of lard with passages such as:”
You do see you wrote The Jungle was written by Lewis when in fact it was written by Upton Sinclair.
CRAP! I always, always, always get the two confused!!