ewein2412 | shameless commercialism, reprise

"I reckon if there's anything you ought a know about cooking, it's this."
"That's just lard, ain't it?"
"No, it ain't just lard," I say. "It's the most important invention in the kitchen since jarred mayonnaise."
"What's so special about" - she wrinkles her nose at it - "pig fat?"
"Ain't pig, it's vegetable." Who in this world doesn't know what Crisco is? "You don't have a clue of all the things you can do with this here can."
She shrugs. "Fry?"
"Ain't just for frying. You ever get a sticky something stuck in your hair, like gum?" I jackhammer my finger on the Crisco can. "That's right, Crisco. Spread this on a baby's bottom, you won't even know what diaper rash is." I plop three scoops in the black skillet. "Shoot, I seen ladies rub it under they eyes and on they husband's scaly feet."
"Look how pretty it is," she says. "Like white cake frosting."
"Clean the goo from a price tag, take the squeak out a door hinge. Lights get cut off, stick a wick in it and burn it like a candle."
I turn on the flame and we watch it melt down in the pan. "And after all that, it'll still fry your chicken."

--Kathryn Stockett, The Help

...The secret ingredient to whoopie pie filling and all commercial cake frosting in the USA! I have to mail order mine. This passage must be an utter mystery to Waterstones and Tesco bookbuying readers. "Who in the world doesn't know what Crisco is?"

(I knew she was going to talk about Crisco from the first sentence. Although, to be honest, I did not use it in my own cooking till I began making whoopie pies.)

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From: (Anonymous)

I'd say that's a Southern thang, except aren't you from Massachusetts or something? We never used Crisco growing up, then I took cake decorating in about the seventh grade. My mother was horrified, but butter-flavored Crisco is how a lot of people make piped buttercream roses that last.

I can't be bothered with any of the above anymore; I'm a fondant person now, so all of my decorated cakes aren't piped but rolled and cut. I'm much better with sugary clay than piping anyway.

I've never yet had a Whoopie Pie. Knowing that there's Crisco in them is not encouraging me!! Oh, well, more for you.

From:

ewein2412

"Massachusetts or something," ha! That reminds me of the waitress in the IHOP in SC who commented as she was serving breakfast to me and a bunch of other Connecticut-based college students, "Ya'll must be from someplace WAY NORTH."

I don't *think* Crisco is just a southern thing, although I did not know all those other housekeeping tricks. My grandmother swears by it and uses it as the secret ingredient in her foolproof pie crust. I have always just used clear vegetable oil for frying and/or butter for baking (I used to use margarine but I think it soaks up refridgerator smells more than butter). I am pretty sure Crisco is an essential in most Pennsylvania Dutch households!

From:

tiboribi.livejournal.com

I think Crisco is a very midwestern thing.

I think lard is the traditional Pennsylvania Dutch fat, but it Crisco gets subbed in.

From:

ewein2412

oh whoops, I forgot to say that I am from Pennsylvania!

From:

j-cheney.livejournal.com

My mom decorated cakes when I was a kid, so when my wedding rolled around, I requested fondant frosting on my cake along with a spray of cut flowers.

(The bakery delivered the wrong cake, sticking me with a hideous creation with blue frosting/cream cheese roses on top. However, the bride that did get my cake (in another town) said it was beautiful....)

From:

ewein2412

did she use Crisco, and where did you live?

CREAM CHEESE ROSES, eeeeee.

From:

j-cheney.livejournal.com

Yes, she did! Ick!

I agree....but I had little choice, since the baker had left before I got downstairs...

Re: tanita chuckles:

tiboribi.livejournal.com

I wonder if she got paid for the product placement.

Also, I must be the only person alive who hasn't read this book. Should I?

From:

ewein2412

well, it suffers from that 21st century trend, Multiple Narrator Syndrome. So far there are 3. I think that is all we are going to get, but they are all mixed up in no particular order. siggghhhhh. I found the first narrative voice *nearly* unreadable in its language affectations, and the second narrative voice not a whole lot different from the first except that it's less noticeably affected, and I had to put the book down and take a break when the third one said she wanted to be a writer because although her grammar is just fine I'd already pegged her as a Mary Sue and she wasn't doing anything to dispel that impression. MY GOD, I AM SO HARD TO PLEASE.

At least it has a short title.

From:

From:

tiboribi.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-11-15 05:05 am (UTC) - Expand

From:

j-cheney.livejournal.com

I grew up using lard (on the Mexican border) so it always amazes me when people haven't ever used it. But a lot of people our age neveer have touched the stuff because of Crisco...

Also, my mom decorated cakes for a few years....so I despise that kind of frosting! ::shudders::

Edited Date: 2011-11-14 12:31 pm (UTC)

From:

ewein2412

oh, see, you have already answered my question!

We only had that kind of frosting when we got a store-bought cake, which was extremely infrequent. So now that I have discovered I can make it myself...

(my kids are butter-cream snobs and don't like Crisco.)

From:

j-cheney.livejournal.com

THe crisco allows for sharper decorations, like more crisply defined flowers...which is why it became de rigeur for cake decoration. But butter cream tastes better, IMO. It's personal, no?

(no subject)

From:

ewein2412 - Date: 2011-11-14 01:05 pm (UTC) - Expand

From:

sartorias.livejournal.com

I remember my mom having huge cans of that stuff. Though as I recall she pretty much only used it for pie crusts.

From:

ewein2412

I think my grandmother mainly uses it for pie crust. She certainly doesn't use it in frosting!

From:

3rdragon

I don't think that I actually grew up with Crisco, but rather with whatever vegetable shortening the hippie grocery store sells.

My mom always uses shortening in pie crusts. (It occurs to me that I don't know what my grandma uses, or if that's where my mom got her recipe.) Emily's roommate has a butter-vodka pie crust recipe that their whole gang swears by . . . and it's fine. But I found myself thinking, This would be better with shortening and no vodka. Of course, that's about my reaction to anything with alcohol in it (minus the shortening). I'm going to have to learn to use butter (by which I may mean margarine), because there is no shortening here (nor lard, and one of the people I feed desserts to is vegetarian, so I wouldn't use lard anyway).
On that topic, does anyone have a favorite butter crust recipe?

We never used shortening for icing, though; it was reserved only for baking. Mind you, we've followed my mother's side of the family in generally having pie at most occasions other people would have cake at. (You could have cake. Or you could have PIE. I'll admit that a good carrot cake is really good, as is the decadent flourless chocolate cake that I found when trying to reproduce the absolutely AMAZING chocolate cake that school served on Julia Child Day my senior year. But mostly, in my opinion, cake is merely okay and the icing is apt to be gross, unless you get a REALLY GOOD cake, whereas run-of-the-mill pies are good. Nowadays we mostly just have cake when my uncle's wife makes it, and she uses cream cheese frosting. But then, my aunt R has a magic touch with pretty much any dessert -- though I'm not sure that's I've ever had a pie she's made. Perhaps the rest of us are intimidating when it comes to pie.) I know we occasionally made icing when I was a kid, because I remember messing around with plastic bags once or twice, but mostly we just got store-bought icing to decorate cakes with.

From:

ewein2412

...it costs me about £8 for a 3 pound can.

From:

habiliments.livejournal.com

I grew up in Oregon and never made pie crusts (though I do understand that Crisco is magic for them), but I'm almost certain I remember cookie and other baked-good recipes that called for "vegetable shortening," which meant Crisco. I should look in my very-old copy of The Joy of Cooking and see if I'm remembering this properly...

(But now I'm realizing, OH, that's what makes commercial cake frosting so bad! It doesn't taste like anything! Just sugared grease!)

From:

ewein2412

I confess I am a sugared grease ADDICT. A fearful thing but true.

The Joy of Cooking coyly refers to Crisco as "shortening." (As opposed to lard, which they define as pork fat.)

From:

rivka.livejournal.com

I use Crisco in piecrust and, oddly enough, in my chocolate chip cookie recipe. And for greasing baking pans.

I would never, ever use it in icing. Buttercream all the way. One stick of butter, one pound of confectioner's sugar, add milk until the consistency is right. Easy-peasy.

From:

ewein2412

I confess (again) that I have never actually used it in icing. But in my Quest for the Perfect Whoopie Pie I have followed the recipe in the book and used it in the whoopie pie filling. It is, I know, morally disgusting. But it DOES taste like a real whoopie pie.