The Story of Crisco | Page 5

or solid cream.
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The Crisco Process at the first stage of its development gave, at least, the basis of the ideal fat; namely, a purely vegetable product, differing from all others in that absolutely no animal fat had to be added to the vegetable oil to produce the proper stiffness. This was but one of the many distinctive advantages sought and found.
Not Marketed Until Perfect
It also solved the problem of eliminating certain objectionable features of fats in general, such as rancidity, color, odor, smoking properties when heated. These weaknesses, therefore, were not a part of this new fat, which it would seem was the parent of the Ideal.
Then after four years of severe tests, after each weakness was replaced with strength the Government was given this fat to analyze and classify. The report was that it answered to none of the tests for fats already existing.
A Primary Fat
It was neither a butter, a "compound" nor a "substitute," but an entirely new product. A primary fat.
In 1911 it was named Crisco and placed upon the market.
Today you buy this rich, wholesome cream of nutritious food oils in sanitary tins. The "Crisco Process" alone can produce this creamy white fat. No one else can manufacture Crisco, because no one else holds the secret of Crisco and because they would have no legal right to make it. Crisco is Crisco, and nothing else.
Finally Economical
At first, it looked very much as if Crisco must be a high-priced product. It cost its discoverers many thousands of dollars before ever a package reached the consumer's kitchen.
Crisco was not offered for sale as a substitute, or for housewives to buy only to save money. The chief point emphasized was, that Crisco was a richer, more wholesome food fat for cooking. Naturally, therefore, it was good news to all when Crisco was found also to be more economical.
Crisco is more economical than lard in another way. It makes richer pastry than lard, and one-fifth less can be used. Furthermore it can be used over and over again in frying all manner of foods, and because foods absorb so little, Crisco is in reality more economical even than lard of mediocre quality. The price of Crisco is lower than the average price of the best pail lard throughout the year.
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Crisco's Manufacture
[Illustration: COOLING IN A ROOM WITH GLASS WALLS]
[Illustration: FILLING BY MACHINERY]
[Illustration: AUTOMATIC LABELLING]
It would be difficult to imagine surroundings more appetizing than those in which Crisco is manufactured. It is made in a building devoted exclusively to the manufacture of this one product. In sparkling bright rooms, cleanly uniformed employees make and pack Crisco.
The air for this building is drawn in through an apparatus which washes and purifies it, removing the possibility of any dust entering.
The floors are of a special tile composition; the walls are of white glazed tile, which are washed regularly. White enamel covers metal surfaces where nickel plating cannot be used. Sterilized machines handle the oil and the finished product. No hand touches Crisco until in your own kitchen the sanitary can is opened, disclosing the smooth richness, the creamlike, appetizing consistency of the product.
The Banishment of That "Lardy" Taste in Foods
It was the earnest aim of the makers of Crisco to produce a strictly vegetable product without adding a hard, and consequently indigestible animal fat. There is today a pronounced partiality from a health standpoint to a vegetable fat, and the lardy, greasy taste of food resulting from the use of animal fat never has been in such disfavor as during the past few years.
So Crisco is absolutely all vegetable. No stearine, animal or vegetable, is added. It possesses no taste nor odor save the delightful and characteristic aroma which identifies Crisco, and is suggestive of its purity.
Explanation of "Hidden" Food Flavors.
When the dainty shadings of taste are over-shadowed by a "lardy" flavor, the true taste of the food itself is lost. We miss the "hidden" or natural taste of the food. Crisco has a peculiar power of bringing out the very best in food flavors. Even the simplest foods are allowed a delicacy of flavor.
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Take ginger bread for example: The real ginger taste is there. The molasses and spice flavors are brought out.
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Or just plain, every-day fried potatoes; many never knew what the real potato taste was before eating potatoes fried in Crisco.
Fried chicken has a newness of taste not known before.
New users of Crisco should try these simple foods first and later take up the preparation of more elaborate dishes.
Butter, Ever Popular
It is hard to imagine anything taking the place of butter upon the dining table. For seasoning in cooking, the use of butter ever will be largely a matter of taste. Some people have a partiality for the "butter flavor," which after all is largely the salt mixed with the fat. Close