January 7, 2026 • 38 mins
This cooking fat made from liquid plant oils is manufactured to be solid at room temperature – and it’s caused a lot of controversy for a cooking fat. Anney and Lauren dip into the science and history behind vegetable shortening.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to Savor Prediction of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Annie Read and I'm Lauren vogel Bum and today
we have an episode for you about vegetable shortening.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yes, and it is our first episode of twenty twenty six.
You came out swinging with this.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah I did. I was like, why not challenge yourselves?
And then I was like, why did I challenge yourselves that?
But yeah, here we are.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Here we are, and we have a lot of science
to go through. I love when it's a very science
specific episode, and then in the history section, I'm trying
my darnedest to to explain it in very simple terms,
but I know that you've got the yeah, yeah details, Yeah,
(00:59):
it's uh yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I love you know our are We always have a
pretty full outline for our episodes, and I love it
when there are an equal page count for my science
section and your history section. I'm like, oh, oh, I
just gave my because I'm the one who suggests the
(01:21):
topics generally, so I was like, oh, I just gave
myself a lot of homework, didn't I Oh, okay, that
was sure? Did that was a choice.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
It was a choice. I uh, we're going to get
into this more. Usually, Chrisco is probably the first thing
people think about. A lot of people think about with
the vegetable shortenings. I don't recall it being in my house.
We were a very big margarine householder, which I think
(01:50):
we talked about in the Margarine episode. I don't recall
Crisco at all.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Oh oh, I definitely grew up with crisco. Uh. My
mother and her mother were big bakers and big home bakers,
and they there was always a tub of crisco around. I.
In fact, remember I must have been like five or
six years old really horrifying my mother by just like
(02:19):
taking a finger full of crisco out of the tub
and just eating it.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
You know.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I was just curious about what it would be like,
and it was gross now, you know, Yeah, but you know,
you don't know until you do the experiment.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Obviously, science and action science action.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yes, even at a young age. Oh goodness. Well, you
can see our episodes about other cooking fats, mostly butter
and yes, margarine, but also ghee. You could do a
side quest into non dairy creamer are more like American
dairy industry drama. Also various baked goods like shortbread and
(03:06):
making patties. Those are two recent ones. I'm sure maybe
meat pies or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. And as
a side note, I just I really love my job
and the years that I've spent here, because when I
search for hydrogenated the term hydrogenated in my computer files,
I come back with all of these Savor episode notes.
(03:27):
But then also this old text stuff script about carbon fiber,
and I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely, that makes perfect sense.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
The research you never know.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Where, thank you, you never know never.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yes, But I guess that brings us to our question. Sure,
vegetable shortening what is it?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Well, Vegetable shortening is a category of culinary use fats
that are solid at room temperature and are made from
plant oils. When we use the term vegetable shortening these days,
we usually mean like an industrially produced, shelf stable, neutral flavored,
extra fat dense option like the brand Crisco. These vegetable
(04:17):
shortenings wind up being like scupably semisoft and sort of
plastic in texture and pure to slightly translucent white in color,
with yeah, like no real odor or flavor. They're used
as an ingredient in baking to make dose that are
crumbly to tender, not chewy, and as the fat for
(04:40):
frying foods. They are an alternative to animal based fats
like lard and butter in that they're vegetarian, they're flavorless,
they're cheaper, and again in the common parlance, they're very
shelf stable and stay fresher longer. They are extremely manufactured
(05:01):
and extremely effective at what they do. They're like an
anthropomorphic chrome robot, the just the gleaming and terrible fat
of the future.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Huh Yeah, I don't know whether they'd be terrified or
are happy.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, Yeah, it's somewhere in there. Yeah, Okay, we're not
getting sponsored by Crisco anytime soon. It's it's only a
little bit horrific, just in the in the processed way anyway.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
The term shortening more broadly refers to any type of
fat that is solid at room temperature, and that includes
lard and butter and margarine these days. As said, when
someone uses the word shortening, they are probably referring to
shelf stable vegetable shortening made from a blend of neutral
ly flavored oils like those from soybeans, corn oil, palms, coconuts, peanuts,
(06:05):
sunflower seeds, cotton seeds or seeds of the mustard family,
which are called rape seed oil or canola oil, which
I have to remind myself of constantly. Anyway, Yes, vegetable
shortenings are generally produced to be basically one hundred percent fat,
like getting rid of all of the other stuff that
(06:25):
you might get in those other shortenings, like proteins and
water and flavor and color, which for example, make up
about twenty percent of something like butter or margarine. However,
you can find vegetable shortenings that are flavored or colored
to resemble butter. Also, they do often contain a small
amount of like emulsifiers and antioxidants like as preservatives, so
(06:51):
most people do not eat them straight out of the
tub as I once did. What are they used for?
The broader category of shortening is so named because these
solid fats can be used to make what's called short
dose short here, meaning crumbly or flaky and tender, not
like stretchy and chewy as in a short crust pastry.
(07:14):
These solid fats can be incorporated into a dough by
cutting them into your flour and stuff. Cutting refers to
like using blades, you know, manually two knives or maybe
a food processor, or if your accident prone, just your
fingers to create little like pebbles or granules of fat
and flour so that the fat winds up coating the
flower particles and thus preventing the glutens in them from
(07:37):
absorbing water and linking up into a big, stretchy matrix.
This keeps the glutens short and the resulting baked good tender.
Vegetable shortening is also used as a medium for frying
foods because again it's inexpensive and shelf stable and vegetarian,
and can also with stand higher heat than a lot
of other fats without burning. Food production using shelf stable
(08:03):
shortening can also help extend the shelf life of your
finished products. Basically, shortening is inert. It just doesn't really
interact with air. It doesn't contain water or sugar or
proteins for microbes to live off of, so it doesn't
spoil like butter or liquid oils can, or not as quickly. Anyway.
(08:24):
There are many specific varieties of vegetable shortenings that are
made for processed food production. You know, for everything from
frying potato chips or doughnuts, to baking puff pastry or cakes,
to making the cream filling for sandwich cookies. Yeah, that
cream with no A in it cre em. Yeah, some
(08:46):
of these may come in liquid form. The terminology is confusing,
but yeah, for consumer purchase, vegetable shortening is sold in
cylindrical tubs or like butter type sticks, both typically found
in the baking aisle. But let's get into some of
this science, because all right, shortening is made from seed oils.
(09:07):
Seed oils are liquid at room temperature, and the whole
appeal of shortenings is that they're solid. So you have
to make the liquid oils crystallize. How does that do?
There are two chemical processes that scientists have come up
with to make it happen, hydrogenation and interestorification. Hydrogenation was
(09:29):
the original, the other one with the really long name
is newer. And all right, I am not a chemist
or any other kind of like accredited science human, but
here's how I understand these processes work. In both, what
you're trying to do is bring these unsaturated, these liquid
fats into a state of saturation. You're making them harder.
(09:54):
You're raising the temperature at which they want to be
liquid to room temperature or a all right. In hydrogenation,
this involves passing hydrogen through the liquid oil in the
presence of some kind of catalyst that will encourage some
of those hydrogen atoms to form bonds with some hydrocarbon
(10:15):
molecules in the oil, which changes the chemical structure which
raises that melting point. In inter esterification, you're rearranging or
replacing some of the bits and bobs within a fat molecule,
specifically some of the fatty acids that are attached to
the kind of backbone of glycerol of the fat molecule.
(10:40):
You can do this either chemically or with enzymes. The
idea is to reform the fat molecule so that it
will have a higher melting point, but sort of like
gently using the properties of the different fatty acids that
are involved. This is where by understanding of the whole
thing breaks down. But if I'm getting it correctly. In hydrogenation,
(11:03):
you're changing the chemical structures to let them pack together
more effectively and like making them less slippy. Yeah, And
in interesterification you're changing the physical structure, which has the
same effect but can be preferred these days for consumer
health reasons. The problem with hydrogenation is that, okay, so
(11:28):
fully hydrogenated fats are completely saturated, they're completely solid, like
they're too solid. They're they're they're hard, not soft, not scupable,
certainly not like spreadable, the way that you would want
something like margarine to be. Before interestorification was invented, that
the solution to this was partially hydrogenating oils for products
(11:52):
like margarine or shortening. Partial hydrogenation happens to change the
arrangement of atoms inside of a fat molecules to the
trans isomer of that molecule, creating what is thus called
trans fats. Trans Fats do occur in nature in small amounts,
(12:12):
in things like the fats that you get from ruminant
animals like cattle or goats, but industrial partial hydrogenation creates
like kind of a lot of trans fats, and trans
fats are not great for you. These days, technologies do
exist to blend fully hydrogenated fats with liquid fats to
(12:36):
produce the desired softness, so hydrogenation is still used in
some shortening products, but more about all that later. No
matter how you have made your vegetable fats capable of
being solid at room temperature. The production of shortening requires
(12:57):
this really complicated process of crystallization, and that I have
no idea how it actually works. It's probably real proprietary anyway,
but from what I from what I understand, you have
to like cool and scrape and need and rest the
fat molecules in specific ways to just like convince them
to form up into this stable crystal structure with an
(13:18):
even texture. If in a different lifetime, I would be really.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Into this m I can see that. I can see that.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Yeah, well.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
What about the nutrition?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Well, indeed, okay, top top line, Like, because vegetable shortenings
are one hundred percent fat, they are very calorie dense,
and they don't provide any other like macro or micronutrients
to speak of. You know, fats are not necessarily bad
for you. We in fact need them to live. But
(14:02):
fats are not all created equal. Over the past few decades,
we have learned a lot about different types of fat
and how they interact with our bodies through our diets,
but we still have a lot more to learn. So like, okay,
generally speaking, vegetable oils are considered healthier than animal fats
(14:23):
because vegetable oils lower your bad LDL cholesterol levels and
raise your good HDL cholesterol levels. Animal fats, on the
other hand, tend to raise levels of both. The problem
with trans fats that are created through partial hydrogenation is
that those lower your good HDLs and raise your bad LDLs.
(14:50):
So that's that's not aces, that's the opposite of ases.
That's not what you want at all. That is why
there has been a movement over the past twenty ish
years to remove partially hydrogenated oils from our processed foods.
Interest Reified fats are still relatively new, and researchers are
still looking into how they work in humans. We're not sure.
(15:14):
We don't know. Fun Yeah, yeah, at any rate. Vegetable
shortening is often used to make treats, and treats are nice.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Treats are nice and necessary sometimes.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Oh my goodness, yes, I you know. As always, we
want you all to have a nice time. If a
nice time is following your cardiologists' recommendations, then that's great. Yeah.
If having a treat is it, that's great too.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yes, we love you all and want you to take
care of yourselves, however that may look. We do have
some numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
We do, all right. I've read estimates that put the
market for vegetable shortening from anywhere from around like five
to sixteen billion dollars a year, the you know market.
I didn't read the full reports because they cost thousands
of dollars to access, but they are rising. Everyone agrees
(16:21):
with that one. North America and the US in particular
is tied up in around forty percent of those markets
due to our large processed baked goods industry. The European
market and France and Germany in particular is the fastest
growing segment of the market. Soybean oil is the oil
(16:43):
that is most used in these shortenings, followed closely by
palm oil.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yes, but that was not always the case.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Oh certainly not. And it you know, it may be
changing in the future. And we are going to get
into all of that in the history section. But first
we're going to get to a quick break for a
word from our sponsors, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Thank you, sponsors, Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Okay, So I was about to tell Lauren this was
a really hard episode in terms of staying focused on
vegetable shortening. On vegetable shortening, do not to go into
the history of all these other things that have had
a huge impact on vegetable shortening. Which again, other shows
(17:42):
do that if they dedicate like eight episodes to.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
It, right, I salute you, right, yeah, Like like lard
is gonna have to be a different episode exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
So I was struggling with that throughout all of this.
But here we go. Shortening in the cooking sense goes
back to at least the seventeen hundreds. Least at least
it typically referred to fats like butter or oils that
were primarily used in baking. Beginning in the eighteen hundreds,
(18:17):
folks were working on new ways of large adulteration to
make it a more effective shortening, and they were experimenting
with adding things like beef tallow to lard to firm
it up because it was softer than they wanted it
to be, especially during the heat of summer.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yep, and yes, you can see our margarine episode for more.
But that industry really started to get underway in the
US in the eighteen seventies and eighties and was seen
as a direct competitor to lard when it came to shortening.
Around the same time the margarine industry was taking off,
the first patents for vegetable shortenings were being filed. And
(18:55):
this brings us to yes a brand name you'll recognize
that is often credited with vegetable shortenings rise Crisco. So
when it comes to Crisco specifically, the story goes that
before the American Civil War, William Proctor, who was a
candle maker, and his brother in law, James Gamble, who
(19:17):
was a soap maker, joined forces to take on fourteen
other competitors in their fields in Cincinnati, Ohio. However, they
ran into a pretty big roadblock when it came to
the price of lard in tarot, which was controlled by
the meat packing monopoly in Cincinnati in the eighteen nineties.
(19:38):
Both of these were key ingredients into both of their products.
They needed them to make their soap in their candles,
so they got the idea to pivot to vegetable shortening,
which wasn't dependent on the meat industry. They took a
lot of steps to cement their place in the business,
especially when it came to the fairly cheap cotton seed
(20:01):
oil that they used. At the time, the South's cotton
industry left behind a lot of cotton seeds, and they
were kind of tricky to deal with. No one really
knew what to do with them. Many farmers didn't utilize
them and they just went bad. The oil people did
get out of them was largely an unsatisfactory product in
(20:22):
the end, Like it smelled bad, it looked bad, Yeah, unpleasant, unpleasant.
That changed when Chimis David Wesson figured out some techniques
that could deodorize and bleach the seeds in the late
eighteen hundreds, which resulted in something that was clear and
tasted pretty neutral when it came to yeah, the tastes
and smell. P and G. Procter and Gamble operated eight
(20:46):
Mississippi based cotton seed oil factories by nineteen oh five,
so they were really.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Like ground level, like at the forefront. Yeah, we're going
to control this.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
We're not gonna let the meat industry do what they did.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Also, I had no idea that this is where Procter
and Gamble came from.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I love it. Yeah, me either. And they didn't stop there.
P andng enlisted German chemist E. C. Kazer in nineteen
oh seven to nail down how hydrogenation works and how
it could help them make a better shortening, and Lauren
already did the whole explanation, but yes, very basically, they
(21:22):
took some fatty acid chains from the oil, inserted some
hydrogen atoms, and transformed it into a solid fat with
a high melting point, so it resembled lard. And for PNG,
that really hammered home the idea that they could sell
this as a food product instead of using it for
candles or soap. They also worked with Wallace mccau who
(21:46):
in nineteen oh five patented a process for turning cotton
seas into imitation lard. They initially sold their product under
the label Crispo, but there was a trademark dispute some
trouble there, so then they tried christ but then there
were concerns about religious affiliations, so eventually they landed on
(22:07):
Crisco Crystallized cottonseed oil.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yeah sure, yeah, why not.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Often brands using cotton in their products in a similar way.
They would put cotton somehow in the name of their product,
and researchers actually think that this might have hurt those
products because cotton was associated with very non food items
like clothing. In the US, A lot of this research
(22:38):
was coming from the US, So people were like, cotton,
what's that doing in.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
My food baking products?
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
For example, there was an early and pretty popular rival
brand called Cottoline, which was available around the eighteen eighties,
made of a cottonseed oil and a little bit of
beef tallow. An ad in the New York Times in
eighteen ninety to touted this as a new kind of
shortening that every housekeeper who was interested in the help
(23:05):
and comfort of her family should try. A longer quote
from that ad, physicians and cooking experts say, it is
destined to be adopted in every kitchen in the land.
This is to suggest that you put it in yours now.
It's both new and good.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Every kitchen in the land.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Every kitchen in the land, both new and good. Anyway,
Condonline is not a household name today, So.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
No but chrisco is and they notably did not overtly
reference cotton in their name. In fact, they seem to
go out of their way to avoid it. They never
mentioned cottonseed oil in their ads or on their packaging.
They instead said shortening. At the time, there were no
regulations against this.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, you didn't have to list your ingredients on the packaging.
They also did lean pretty heavy into the vegetable with
phrases like strictly vegetable, purely vegetable, or absolutely all vegetable.
They were one of the first food companies to talk
about vegetable oils in this positive light.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Yes, and when Chrisco was initially introduced to the public
in nineteen eleven, Procter and Gamble launched an ad campaign
for it, claiming it's vegetable, it's digestible. Some of the
ads also included this line a healthier alternative to cooking
with animal fats and more economical than butter, and this
(24:35):
was a clearer swing at their main competitors, butter and lard.
They touted it as economical and cleaner. It was sold
in tin, it didn't have black specks in it like
something like lard MTE, and it was odorless. Soon after,
they published a cookbook that detailed the history of Crisco,
and from what I understand, they just gave this away.
(24:58):
It included over six hundred recipes and all of them,
of course called for Crisco.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Yeah. This book was entitled A Calendar of Dinners with
six hundred and fifteen recipes by one Marion Harris Neil
published in nineteen twenty one, and yeah, everything from soups
to cast roles, to desserts with Crisco as the cooking fat,
fresh salads with Crisco as the fat in the salad dressing,
(25:25):
Sandwich spreads made with Crisco instead of mayo.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
What a world. The product was pretty popular pretty quickly,
though some sources suggest it did take some convincing at first.
We'll get into that in more in a second, but
by the early twentieth century, it was cheaper than lard,
it didn't require refrigeration, it had a high smoke point,
and was widely available. So yes. They also advertised it
(25:53):
to Jewish folks as a kosher alternative to butter and lard.
In nineteen thirty three, they released a cookbook entitled to
Crisco Recipes for the Jewish Housewife. Within five years of introduction,
Americans were buying sixty million cans of crisco a year,
which is pretty wild when you think about it. P
(26:14):
and G was also able to convince things like big
booming train lines to switch from lard to crisco. It's
mostly a price point for sharing, but yeah, yeah, stepping back,
a bit. Though P and G tried to patent the
process involved in making hydrogenated shortenings, their patent was overturned
(26:34):
and other companies started making their own products. By nineteen twelve,
some competitors were experimenting with different oils like soy. By
World War One, vegetable shortenings had really taken off in
the US, helped along by the fact that a lot
of America's large was being exported to Europe and Americans
were being encouraged to use vegetable shortening. Meanwhile, the soy
(26:58):
oil industry really got underway in the US in the
nineteen thirties, which led to it being used more and
more in vegetable shortenings, and in the ensuing decades, several brands,
including Crisco, switched from cottonseed oil to soy and or
palm and canola oils. During the World War II rationing
(27:18):
of the nineteen forties, Crisco switched to glass jar packaging
as opposed to the ten that they had been in
previously that they had been using previously. The first television
ad for Crisco ran in nineteen forty nine. At the
same time, Americans were encouraged to switch to vegetable shortenings
and oils instead of butter and oil. Yes. During both
(27:39):
of the World Wars. Chrisco released a butter flavored version
of the product in nineteen eighty one, which I'm very
interested in.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
You can go purchase it right now if you would
like to.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Oh go Okay. Beginning in the nineteen eighties, there were
a few health campaign that called for switching from things
like palm and coconut oil or beef fats to partially
hydrogenated oils, which included things like vegetable shortening.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah. There was a concept at the time that these
partially hydrogenated oils, these artificially saturated fats, were healthier than
naturally saturated fats.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Yes, and these campaigns were pretty successful. Several fast food
chains switched to partially hydrogenated soybean oil. Some research around
this time declared that trans fats were actually good for you. However,
starting in the nineties, there were growing health concerns around
trans fats. Over the next few decades, some countries limited
(28:50):
or outright band trans fats. Brands like Crisco and Cooking
reformulated their vegetable shortening products to contain little to know
trans In response.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
It was a kerfuffle. Amidst all of.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
This, JM. Schmucker the company purchase Crisco in two thousand
and two.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Yep, Proctor and Gamble were like, probably no, no more
of this, you take it sure. Then announced in two
thousand and three, and starting in two thousand and six,
the FDA made producers list the amount of transfats in
their foods right on the nutrition label added line any
(29:31):
transfats in there rights.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
And several companies were successfully sued due to lack of
transparency around the amount of transfat in their products. The
whole thing is complicated, to say the least.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, in the US, all of this culminated in the
FDA determining in twenty fifteen that partially hydrogenated oils are
not general only recognized is safe, and that therefore, for
the good of public health, they cannot be used as
an ingredient in manufactured foods. The final compliance deadline to
(30:11):
stop using them was January first of twenty twenty one.
And yeah, so you know, companies like Crisco and competitors
started using these other technologies, interest hoorification and some new
blending methods of fully hydrogenated oils with liquid oils to yeah,
(30:36):
work out whatever texture situations they were aiming for. Recently,
the cost of vegetable oils has been rising, and there's
been increasing consumer demand for fairly traded oils or more
sustainable options, with an eye toward palm oil in particular.
(30:57):
But yeah, it's just more stuff for the companies that
make these products to contend with. As within all of
our kind of like dairy adjacent episodes, I'm super fascinated
by all of the scientific and political drama surrounding all
of this.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Yes, again, this was a hard one to wrangle into.
I cannot go down all of these rabbit holes that
I desperately want to go down. But there's a lot
connected to this one of issues of yeah, palm oil
or science or yeah, the dairy industry. Again, listen to
(31:41):
our Margine episode if you haven't already. But that was
a huge fight.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Oh absolutely, and also tying into stuff that we talked
about in our sugar episodes and in our Miracle Berry
episode about just the fights that were occurring amongst the
like fat versus sugar, which is bad you yea industrial
complexes here in the US, and yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Well and just also having the certain countries having different
rules of how much transfat or no trans fat can
be in anything, and how these companies deal with that.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Yeah, it's a lot, it is. It is many many
side quests for future times and dates, yes, But.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
In the meantime we came out, as I said, swinging
with this one. But we would love to hear your thoughts, listeners.
Oh my gosh, do you have any memories? Do you
have any recipes? Do you have Crisco memories?
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Do you have some in your cabinet right now?
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Do you have a strong feeling about the texture as
it is now versus how it used to be?
Speaker 1 (32:55):
I did read some of those articles. People have opinions.
People have opinions, and we would love to yours, listeners.
But that's what we have to say about vegetable shortening
for now.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
It is. We do already have some listener mail for you, though,
and we're going to get into that as soon as
we get back from one more quick break forward from
our sponsors. And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
And we're back with a listener man. Yes, okay, so
this is fun. We have two messages about you logs.
Oh yeah, yes, always, even if we're past the holidays,
please keep these messages coming. We know you listen to
(33:47):
them whenever. And also we're a little behind on listener mail,
so yeah yeah, and this is you know, we wanted
to hear about it, and you have made sure to
make sure that we did. Okay, So Steph wrote you
asked for it several times, so you get it. Here's
(34:07):
the bouche d noel I made last year. I used
it as a chance to practice icing point setias to
mixed success. This year, I'm simplifying and going with an
apple pie. All right, this it looks good. Your point
is one point to me? Yeah they look super cute.
Yeah yeah, yes.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Attached is a is a photograph of a little little
two branch mule log and yeah, many many cute little
red icing point setias and some little cute white flowers
on there as well. Yeah, looks like a log.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
I also love that you Maybe this is just how
I do apple pie, but simplifying with an apple pie
m But maybe you have a Maybe you have a
recipe that's not as complicated as mine.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
I have two. I have two main apple pie categories,
and one is like extremely fussy, and the other is
I'll mix this together with my hands and then a
dumped it and a pock crust. So yeah, yeah, well.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
I think this was a complete success from the picture. Yeah,
and I hope that the simplifying with the apple pie
went well.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Oh oh absolutely. I always hope that apple pies have
gone well. Gosh, I love an apple pie simple, so nice.
Kelsey wrote, I'm listening to your ulug episode right now.
I don't have a ton of experience with them, However,
I did once help my cousin and his friend make
one for their French class. They were making the batter
(35:46):
and it was just so thin and watery, and they
weren't sure why. They tried adding more flour, but it
still wasn't right. Eventually they decided to scrap it and
start over. They asked me to tell them each step
of the recipe to make sure they got it right.
I got to water. My cousin said two cups, right, No,
I said two tablespoons. The second attempt came out great.
(36:09):
Perhaps one day I'll attempt at myself, once I've recovered
from baking a zillion short bread cookies for Christmas. Yeah,
cuts to tablespoons. Uh huh, yep, that'll that's that found
your problem right there. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Yeah, well at least they solved it.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Sure, yeah, great, yeah, yeah, you know, it happens it
one time my friend we were making gingerbread cookies and
she was measuring right over the batter.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Oh no, and the whole top fell off, you know,
and just ginger.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Oh that's a lot. I mean yep, yeah, I mean
I like ginger. And that sounds like probably that was
not useful dough.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
No, it's sad when you have to scrap it, you know.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Yeah, you're like, oh, ingredients, So I'm sorry, guys.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Yeah, I let you down, Let you down.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah, I once forgot the difference between a clove and
a head of garlic. No, yeah, oh no is the
correct response. Oh no, we really had to air out
my apartment. It was fine.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Yeah, that's bad news. We've all been there.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Yeah, and we air out our apartments exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Well, thanks so much to both of these listeners you're
writing in. If you would like to write to us,
we would love to hear from you. Our email is
hello at saborpod dot com. We are also on social media.
You can find us on Blue Sky and Instagram at
saber pod and we do hope to hear from you.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Savor is production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my
Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way
Hello, and welcome to Savor Prediction of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Annie Read and I'm Lauren vogel Bum and today
we have an episode for you about vegetable shortening.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yes, and it is our first episode of twenty twenty six.
You came out swinging with this.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah I did. I was like, why not challenge yourselves?
And then I was like, why did I challenge yourselves that?
But yeah, here we are.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Here we are, and we have a lot of science
to go through. I love when it's a very science
specific episode, and then in the history section, I'm trying
my darnedest to to explain it in very simple terms,
but I know that you've got the yeah, yeah details, Yeah,
(00:59):
it's uh yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I love you know our are We always have a
pretty full outline for our episodes, and I love it
when there are an equal page count for my science
section and your history section. I'm like, oh, oh, I
just gave my because I'm the one who suggests the
(01:21):
topics generally, so I was like, oh, I just gave
myself a lot of homework, didn't I Oh, okay, that
was sure? Did that was a choice.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
It was a choice. I uh, we're going to get
into this more. Usually, Chrisco is probably the first thing
people think about. A lot of people think about with
the vegetable shortenings. I don't recall it being in my house.
We were a very big margarine householder, which I think
(01:50):
we talked about in the Margarine episode. I don't recall
Crisco at all.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Oh oh, I definitely grew up with crisco. Uh. My
mother and her mother were big bakers and big home bakers,
and they there was always a tub of crisco around. I.
In fact, remember I must have been like five or
six years old really horrifying my mother by just like
(02:19):
taking a finger full of crisco out of the tub
and just eating it.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
You know.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I was just curious about what it would be like,
and it was gross now, you know, Yeah, but you know,
you don't know until you do the experiment.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Obviously, science and action science action.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yes, even at a young age. Oh goodness. Well, you
can see our episodes about other cooking fats, mostly butter
and yes, margarine, but also ghee. You could do a
side quest into non dairy creamer are more like American
dairy industry drama. Also various baked goods like shortbread and
(03:06):
making patties. Those are two recent ones. I'm sure maybe
meat pies or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. And as
a side note, I just I really love my job
and the years that I've spent here, because when I
search for hydrogenated the term hydrogenated in my computer files,
I come back with all of these Savor episode notes.
(03:27):
But then also this old text stuff script about carbon fiber,
and I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely, that makes perfect sense.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
The research you never know.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Where, thank you, you never know never.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yes, But I guess that brings us to our question. Sure,
vegetable shortening what is it?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Well, Vegetable shortening is a category of culinary use fats
that are solid at room temperature and are made from
plant oils. When we use the term vegetable shortening these days,
we usually mean like an industrially produced, shelf stable, neutral flavored,
extra fat dense option like the brand Crisco. These vegetable
(04:17):
shortenings wind up being like scupably semisoft and sort of
plastic in texture and pure to slightly translucent white in color,
with yeah, like no real odor or flavor. They're used
as an ingredient in baking to make dose that are
crumbly to tender, not chewy, and as the fat for
(04:40):
frying foods. They are an alternative to animal based fats
like lard and butter in that they're vegetarian, they're flavorless,
they're cheaper, and again in the common parlance, they're very
shelf stable and stay fresher longer. They are extremely manufactured
(05:01):
and extremely effective at what they do. They're like an
anthropomorphic chrome robot, the just the gleaming and terrible fat
of the future.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Huh Yeah, I don't know whether they'd be terrified or
are happy.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, Yeah, it's somewhere in there. Yeah, Okay, we're not
getting sponsored by Crisco anytime soon. It's it's only a
little bit horrific, just in the in the processed way anyway.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
The term shortening more broadly refers to any type of
fat that is solid at room temperature, and that includes
lard and butter and margarine these days. As said, when
someone uses the word shortening, they are probably referring to
shelf stable vegetable shortening made from a blend of neutral
ly flavored oils like those from soybeans, corn oil, palms, coconuts, peanuts,
(06:05):
sunflower seeds, cotton seeds or seeds of the mustard family,
which are called rape seed oil or canola oil, which
I have to remind myself of constantly. Anyway, Yes, vegetable
shortenings are generally produced to be basically one hundred percent fat,
like getting rid of all of the other stuff that
(06:25):
you might get in those other shortenings, like proteins and
water and flavor and color, which for example, make up
about twenty percent of something like butter or margarine. However,
you can find vegetable shortenings that are flavored or colored
to resemble butter. Also, they do often contain a small
amount of like emulsifiers and antioxidants like as preservatives, so
(06:51):
most people do not eat them straight out of the
tub as I once did. What are they used for?
The broader category of shortening is so named because these
solid fats can be used to make what's called short
dose short here, meaning crumbly or flaky and tender, not
like stretchy and chewy as in a short crust pastry.
(07:14):
These solid fats can be incorporated into a dough by
cutting them into your flour and stuff. Cutting refers to
like using blades, you know, manually two knives or maybe
a food processor, or if your accident prone, just your
fingers to create little like pebbles or granules of fat
and flour so that the fat winds up coating the
flower particles and thus preventing the glutens in them from
(07:37):
absorbing water and linking up into a big, stretchy matrix.
This keeps the glutens short and the resulting baked good tender.
Vegetable shortening is also used as a medium for frying
foods because again it's inexpensive and shelf stable and vegetarian,
and can also with stand higher heat than a lot
of other fats without burning. Food production using shelf stable
(08:03):
shortening can also help extend the shelf life of your
finished products. Basically, shortening is inert. It just doesn't really
interact with air. It doesn't contain water or sugar or
proteins for microbes to live off of, so it doesn't
spoil like butter or liquid oils can, or not as quickly. Anyway.
(08:24):
There are many specific varieties of vegetable shortenings that are
made for processed food production. You know, for everything from
frying potato chips or doughnuts, to baking puff pastry or cakes,
to making the cream filling for sandwich cookies. Yeah, that
cream with no A in it cre em. Yeah, some
(08:46):
of these may come in liquid form. The terminology is confusing,
but yeah, for consumer purchase, vegetable shortening is sold in
cylindrical tubs or like butter type sticks, both typically found
in the baking aisle. But let's get into some of
this science, because all right, shortening is made from seed oils.
(09:07):
Seed oils are liquid at room temperature, and the whole
appeal of shortenings is that they're solid. So you have
to make the liquid oils crystallize. How does that do?
There are two chemical processes that scientists have come up
with to make it happen, hydrogenation and interestorification. Hydrogenation was
(09:29):
the original, the other one with the really long name
is newer. And all right, I am not a chemist
or any other kind of like accredited science human, but
here's how I understand these processes work. In both, what
you're trying to do is bring these unsaturated, these liquid
fats into a state of saturation. You're making them harder.
(09:54):
You're raising the temperature at which they want to be
liquid to room temperature or a all right. In hydrogenation,
this involves passing hydrogen through the liquid oil in the
presence of some kind of catalyst that will encourage some
of those hydrogen atoms to form bonds with some hydrocarbon
(10:15):
molecules in the oil, which changes the chemical structure which
raises that melting point. In inter esterification, you're rearranging or
replacing some of the bits and bobs within a fat molecule,
specifically some of the fatty acids that are attached to
the kind of backbone of glycerol of the fat molecule.
(10:40):
You can do this either chemically or with enzymes. The
idea is to reform the fat molecule so that it
will have a higher melting point, but sort of like
gently using the properties of the different fatty acids that
are involved. This is where by understanding of the whole
thing breaks down. But if I'm getting it correctly. In hydrogenation,
(11:03):
you're changing the chemical structures to let them pack together
more effectively and like making them less slippy. Yeah, And
in interesterification you're changing the physical structure, which has the
same effect but can be preferred these days for consumer
health reasons. The problem with hydrogenation is that, okay, so
(11:28):
fully hydrogenated fats are completely saturated, they're completely solid, like
they're too solid. They're they're they're hard, not soft, not scupable,
certainly not like spreadable, the way that you would want
something like margarine to be. Before interestorification was invented, that
the solution to this was partially hydrogenating oils for products
(11:52):
like margarine or shortening. Partial hydrogenation happens to change the
arrangement of atoms inside of a fat molecules to the
trans isomer of that molecule, creating what is thus called
trans fats. Trans Fats do occur in nature in small amounts,
(12:12):
in things like the fats that you get from ruminant
animals like cattle or goats, but industrial partial hydrogenation creates
like kind of a lot of trans fats, and trans
fats are not great for you. These days, technologies do
exist to blend fully hydrogenated fats with liquid fats to
(12:36):
produce the desired softness, so hydrogenation is still used in
some shortening products, but more about all that later. No
matter how you have made your vegetable fats capable of
being solid at room temperature. The production of shortening requires
(12:57):
this really complicated process of crystallization, and that I have
no idea how it actually works. It's probably real proprietary anyway,
but from what I from what I understand, you have
to like cool and scrape and need and rest the
fat molecules in specific ways to just like convince them
to form up into this stable crystal structure with an
(13:18):
even texture. If in a different lifetime, I would be really.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Into this m I can see that. I can see that.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Yeah, well.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
What about the nutrition?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Well, indeed, okay, top top line, Like, because vegetable shortenings
are one hundred percent fat, they are very calorie dense,
and they don't provide any other like macro or micronutrients
to speak of. You know, fats are not necessarily bad
for you. We in fact need them to live. But
(14:02):
fats are not all created equal. Over the past few decades,
we have learned a lot about different types of fat
and how they interact with our bodies through our diets,
but we still have a lot more to learn. So like, okay,
generally speaking, vegetable oils are considered healthier than animal fats
(14:23):
because vegetable oils lower your bad LDL cholesterol levels and
raise your good HDL cholesterol levels. Animal fats, on the
other hand, tend to raise levels of both. The problem
with trans fats that are created through partial hydrogenation is
that those lower your good HDLs and raise your bad LDLs.
(14:50):
So that's that's not aces, that's the opposite of ases.
That's not what you want at all. That is why
there has been a movement over the past twenty ish
years to remove partially hydrogenated oils from our processed foods.
Interest Reified fats are still relatively new, and researchers are
still looking into how they work in humans. We're not sure.
(15:14):
We don't know. Fun Yeah, yeah, at any rate. Vegetable
shortening is often used to make treats, and treats are nice.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Treats are nice and necessary sometimes.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Oh my goodness, yes, I you know. As always, we
want you all to have a nice time. If a
nice time is following your cardiologists' recommendations, then that's great. Yeah.
If having a treat is it, that's great too.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yes, we love you all and want you to take
care of yourselves, however that may look. We do have
some numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
We do, all right. I've read estimates that put the
market for vegetable shortening from anywhere from around like five
to sixteen billion dollars a year, the you know market.
I didn't read the full reports because they cost thousands
of dollars to access, but they are rising. Everyone agrees
(16:21):
with that one. North America and the US in particular
is tied up in around forty percent of those markets
due to our large processed baked goods industry. The European
market and France and Germany in particular is the fastest
growing segment of the market. Soybean oil is the oil
(16:43):
that is most used in these shortenings, followed closely by
palm oil.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yes, but that was not always the case.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Oh certainly not. And it you know, it may be
changing in the future. And we are going to get
into all of that in the history section. But first
we're going to get to a quick break for a
word from our sponsors, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Thank you, sponsors, Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Okay, So I was about to tell Lauren this was
a really hard episode in terms of staying focused on
vegetable shortening. On vegetable shortening, do not to go into
the history of all these other things that have had
a huge impact on vegetable shortening. Which again, other shows
(17:42):
do that if they dedicate like eight episodes to.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
It, right, I salute you, right, yeah, Like like lard
is gonna have to be a different episode exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
So I was struggling with that throughout all of this.
But here we go. Shortening in the cooking sense goes
back to at least the seventeen hundreds. Least at least
it typically referred to fats like butter or oils that
were primarily used in baking. Beginning in the eighteen hundreds,
(18:17):
folks were working on new ways of large adulteration to
make it a more effective shortening, and they were experimenting
with adding things like beef tallow to lard to firm
it up because it was softer than they wanted it
to be, especially during the heat of summer.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yep, and yes, you can see our margarine episode for more.
But that industry really started to get underway in the
US in the eighteen seventies and eighties and was seen
as a direct competitor to lard when it came to shortening.
Around the same time the margarine industry was taking off,
the first patents for vegetable shortenings were being filed. And
(18:55):
this brings us to yes a brand name you'll recognize
that is often credited with vegetable shortenings rise Crisco. So
when it comes to Crisco specifically, the story goes that
before the American Civil War, William Proctor, who was a
candle maker, and his brother in law, James Gamble, who
(19:17):
was a soap maker, joined forces to take on fourteen
other competitors in their fields in Cincinnati, Ohio. However, they
ran into a pretty big roadblock when it came to
the price of lard in tarot, which was controlled by
the meat packing monopoly in Cincinnati in the eighteen nineties.
(19:38):
Both of these were key ingredients into both of their products.
They needed them to make their soap in their candles,
so they got the idea to pivot to vegetable shortening,
which wasn't dependent on the meat industry. They took a
lot of steps to cement their place in the business,
especially when it came to the fairly cheap cotton seed
(20:01):
oil that they used. At the time, the South's cotton
industry left behind a lot of cotton seeds, and they
were kind of tricky to deal with. No one really
knew what to do with them. Many farmers didn't utilize
them and they just went bad. The oil people did
get out of them was largely an unsatisfactory product in
(20:22):
the end, Like it smelled bad, it looked bad, Yeah, unpleasant, unpleasant.
That changed when Chimis David Wesson figured out some techniques
that could deodorize and bleach the seeds in the late
eighteen hundreds, which resulted in something that was clear and
tasted pretty neutral when it came to yeah, the tastes
and smell. P and G. Procter and Gamble operated eight
(20:46):
Mississippi based cotton seed oil factories by nineteen oh five,
so they were really.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Like ground level, like at the forefront. Yeah, we're going
to control this.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
We're not gonna let the meat industry do what they did.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Also, I had no idea that this is where Procter
and Gamble came from.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I love it. Yeah, me either. And they didn't stop there.
P andng enlisted German chemist E. C. Kazer in nineteen
oh seven to nail down how hydrogenation works and how
it could help them make a better shortening, and Lauren
already did the whole explanation, but yes, very basically, they
(21:22):
took some fatty acid chains from the oil, inserted some
hydrogen atoms, and transformed it into a solid fat with
a high melting point, so it resembled lard. And for PNG,
that really hammered home the idea that they could sell
this as a food product instead of using it for
candles or soap. They also worked with Wallace mccau who
(21:46):
in nineteen oh five patented a process for turning cotton
seas into imitation lard. They initially sold their product under
the label Crispo, but there was a trademark dispute some
trouble there, so then they tried christ but then there
were concerns about religious affiliations, so eventually they landed on
(22:07):
Crisco Crystallized cottonseed oil.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yeah sure, yeah, why not.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Often brands using cotton in their products in a similar way.
They would put cotton somehow in the name of their product,
and researchers actually think that this might have hurt those
products because cotton was associated with very non food items
like clothing. In the US, A lot of this research
(22:38):
was coming from the US, So people were like, cotton,
what's that doing in.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
My food baking products?
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
For example, there was an early and pretty popular rival
brand called Cottoline, which was available around the eighteen eighties,
made of a cottonseed oil and a little bit of
beef tallow. An ad in the New York Times in
eighteen ninety to touted this as a new kind of
shortening that every housekeeper who was interested in the help
(23:05):
and comfort of her family should try. A longer quote
from that ad, physicians and cooking experts say, it is
destined to be adopted in every kitchen in the land.
This is to suggest that you put it in yours now.
It's both new and good.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Every kitchen in the land.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Every kitchen in the land, both new and good. Anyway,
Condonline is not a household name today, So.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
No but chrisco is and they notably did not overtly
reference cotton in their name. In fact, they seem to
go out of their way to avoid it. They never
mentioned cottonseed oil in their ads or on their packaging.
They instead said shortening. At the time, there were no
regulations against this.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, you didn't have to list your ingredients on the packaging.
They also did lean pretty heavy into the vegetable with
phrases like strictly vegetable, purely vegetable, or absolutely all vegetable.
They were one of the first food companies to talk
about vegetable oils in this positive light.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Yes, and when Chrisco was initially introduced to the public
in nineteen eleven, Procter and Gamble launched an ad campaign
for it, claiming it's vegetable, it's digestible. Some of the
ads also included this line a healthier alternative to cooking
with animal fats and more economical than butter, and this
(24:35):
was a clearer swing at their main competitors, butter and lard.
They touted it as economical and cleaner. It was sold
in tin, it didn't have black specks in it like
something like lard MTE, and it was odorless. Soon after,
they published a cookbook that detailed the history of Crisco,
and from what I understand, they just gave this away.
(24:58):
It included over six hundred recipes and all of them,
of course called for Crisco.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Yeah. This book was entitled A Calendar of Dinners with
six hundred and fifteen recipes by one Marion Harris Neil
published in nineteen twenty one, and yeah, everything from soups
to cast roles, to desserts with Crisco as the cooking fat,
fresh salads with Crisco as the fat in the salad dressing,
(25:25):
Sandwich spreads made with Crisco instead of mayo.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
What a world. The product was pretty popular pretty quickly,
though some sources suggest it did take some convincing at first.
We'll get into that in more in a second, but
by the early twentieth century, it was cheaper than lard,
it didn't require refrigeration, it had a high smoke point,
and was widely available. So yes. They also advertised it
(25:53):
to Jewish folks as a kosher alternative to butter and lard.
In nineteen thirty three, they released a cookbook entitled to
Crisco Recipes for the Jewish Housewife. Within five years of introduction,
Americans were buying sixty million cans of crisco a year,
which is pretty wild when you think about it. P
(26:14):
and G was also able to convince things like big
booming train lines to switch from lard to crisco. It's
mostly a price point for sharing, but yeah, yeah, stepping back,
a bit. Though P and G tried to patent the
process involved in making hydrogenated shortenings, their patent was overturned
(26:34):
and other companies started making their own products. By nineteen twelve,
some competitors were experimenting with different oils like soy. By
World War One, vegetable shortenings had really taken off in
the US, helped along by the fact that a lot
of America's large was being exported to Europe and Americans
were being encouraged to use vegetable shortening. Meanwhile, the soy
(26:58):
oil industry really got underway in the US in the
nineteen thirties, which led to it being used more and
more in vegetable shortenings, and in the ensuing decades, several brands,
including Crisco, switched from cottonseed oil to soy and or
palm and canola oils. During the World War II rationing
(27:18):
of the nineteen forties, Crisco switched to glass jar packaging
as opposed to the ten that they had been in
previously that they had been using previously. The first television
ad for Crisco ran in nineteen forty nine. At the
same time, Americans were encouraged to switch to vegetable shortenings
and oils instead of butter and oil. Yes. During both
(27:39):
of the World Wars. Chrisco released a butter flavored version
of the product in nineteen eighty one, which I'm very
interested in.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
You can go purchase it right now if you would
like to.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Oh go Okay. Beginning in the nineteen eighties, there were
a few health campaign that called for switching from things
like palm and coconut oil or beef fats to partially
hydrogenated oils, which included things like vegetable shortening.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah. There was a concept at the time that these
partially hydrogenated oils, these artificially saturated fats, were healthier than
naturally saturated fats.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Yes, and these campaigns were pretty successful. Several fast food
chains switched to partially hydrogenated soybean oil. Some research around
this time declared that trans fats were actually good for you. However,
starting in the nineties, there were growing health concerns around
trans fats. Over the next few decades, some countries limited
(28:50):
or outright band trans fats. Brands like Crisco and Cooking
reformulated their vegetable shortening products to contain little to know
trans In response.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
It was a kerfuffle. Amidst all of.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
This, JM. Schmucker the company purchase Crisco in two thousand
and two.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Yep, Proctor and Gamble were like, probably no, no more
of this, you take it sure. Then announced in two
thousand and three, and starting in two thousand and six,
the FDA made producers list the amount of transfats in
their foods right on the nutrition label added line any
(29:31):
transfats in there rights.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
And several companies were successfully sued due to lack of
transparency around the amount of transfat in their products. The
whole thing is complicated, to say the least.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, in the US, all of this culminated in the
FDA determining in twenty fifteen that partially hydrogenated oils are
not general only recognized is safe, and that therefore, for
the good of public health, they cannot be used as
an ingredient in manufactured foods. The final compliance deadline to
(30:11):
stop using them was January first of twenty twenty one.
And yeah, so you know, companies like Crisco and competitors
started using these other technologies, interest hoorification and some new
blending methods of fully hydrogenated oils with liquid oils to yeah,
(30:36):
work out whatever texture situations they were aiming for. Recently,
the cost of vegetable oils has been rising, and there's
been increasing consumer demand for fairly traded oils or more
sustainable options, with an eye toward palm oil in particular.
(30:57):
But yeah, it's just more stuff for the companies that
make these products to contend with. As within all of
our kind of like dairy adjacent episodes, I'm super fascinated
by all of the scientific and political drama surrounding all
of this.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Yes, again, this was a hard one to wrangle into.
I cannot go down all of these rabbit holes that
I desperately want to go down. But there's a lot
connected to this one of issues of yeah, palm oil
or science or yeah, the dairy industry. Again, listen to
(31:41):
our Margine episode if you haven't already. But that was
a huge fight.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Oh absolutely, and also tying into stuff that we talked
about in our sugar episodes and in our Miracle Berry
episode about just the fights that were occurring amongst the
like fat versus sugar, which is bad you yea industrial
complexes here in the US, and yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Well and just also having the certain countries having different
rules of how much transfat or no trans fat can
be in anything, and how these companies deal with that.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Yeah, it's a lot, it is. It is many many
side quests for future times and dates, yes, But.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
In the meantime we came out, as I said, swinging
with this one. But we would love to hear your thoughts, listeners.
Oh my gosh, do you have any memories? Do you
have any recipes? Do you have Crisco memories?
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Do you have some in your cabinet right now?
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Do you have a strong feeling about the texture as
it is now versus how it used to be?
Speaker 1 (32:55):
I did read some of those articles. People have opinions.
People have opinions, and we would love to yours, listeners.
But that's what we have to say about vegetable shortening
for now.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
It is. We do already have some listener mail for you, though,
and we're going to get into that as soon as
we get back from one more quick break forward from
our sponsors. And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
And we're back with a listener man. Yes, okay, so
this is fun. We have two messages about you logs.
Oh yeah, yes, always, even if we're past the holidays,
please keep these messages coming. We know you listen to
(33:47):
them whenever. And also we're a little behind on listener mail,
so yeah yeah, and this is you know, we wanted
to hear about it, and you have made sure to
make sure that we did. Okay, So Steph wrote you
asked for it several times, so you get it. Here's
(34:07):
the bouche d noel I made last year. I used
it as a chance to practice icing point setias to
mixed success. This year, I'm simplifying and going with an
apple pie. All right, this it looks good. Your point
is one point to me? Yeah they look super cute.
Yeah yeah, yes.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Attached is a is a photograph of a little little
two branch mule log and yeah, many many cute little
red icing point setias and some little cute white flowers
on there as well. Yeah, looks like a log.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
I also love that you Maybe this is just how
I do apple pie, but simplifying with an apple pie
m But maybe you have a Maybe you have a
recipe that's not as complicated as mine.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
I have two. I have two main apple pie categories,
and one is like extremely fussy, and the other is
I'll mix this together with my hands and then a
dumped it and a pock crust. So yeah, yeah, well.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
I think this was a complete success from the picture. Yeah,
and I hope that the simplifying with the apple pie
went well.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Oh oh absolutely. I always hope that apple pies have
gone well. Gosh, I love an apple pie simple, so nice.
Kelsey wrote, I'm listening to your ulug episode right now.
I don't have a ton of experience with them, However,
I did once help my cousin and his friend make
one for their French class. They were making the batter
(35:46):
and it was just so thin and watery, and they
weren't sure why. They tried adding more flour, but it
still wasn't right. Eventually they decided to scrap it and
start over. They asked me to tell them each step
of the recipe to make sure they got it right.
I got to water. My cousin said two cups, right, No,
I said two tablespoons. The second attempt came out great.
(36:09):
Perhaps one day I'll attempt at myself, once I've recovered
from baking a zillion short bread cookies for Christmas. Yeah,
cuts to tablespoons. Uh huh, yep, that'll that's that found
your problem right there. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Yeah, well at least they solved it.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Sure, yeah, great, yeah, yeah, you know, it happens it
one time my friend we were making gingerbread cookies and
she was measuring right over the batter.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Oh no, and the whole top fell off, you know,
and just ginger.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Oh that's a lot. I mean yep, yeah, I mean
I like ginger. And that sounds like probably that was
not useful dough.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
No, it's sad when you have to scrap it, you know.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Yeah, you're like, oh, ingredients, So I'm sorry, guys.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Yeah, I let you down, Let you down.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah, I once forgot the difference between a clove and
a head of garlic. No, yeah, oh no is the
correct response. Oh no, we really had to air out
my apartment. It was fine.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Yeah, that's bad news. We've all been there.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Yeah, and we air out our apartments exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Well, thanks so much to both of these listeners you're
writing in. If you would like to write to us,
we would love to hear from you. Our email is
hello at saborpod dot com. We are also on social media.
You can find us on Blue Sky and Instagram at
saber pod and we do hope to hear from you.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Savor is production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my
Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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