Crisco is not the only vegetable shortening you can find on your local supermarket shelves, but given that it's been around since 1911, the brand name has become synonymous with the product. For lots of bakers, particularly those of a certain age, they're an absolute pantry staple.
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00:00For diehard bakers, Crisco has long been a pantry staple. While it's not the only vegetable
00:06shortening on the market, it's certainly the best known. But before you head to the store
00:11to stock up on all of the different Crisco products, you might want to know exactly how
00:17they're made.
00:19Crisco's 100-plus year history started as a story of marketing success. According to
00:24a history of the company published on Real Food Houston, Crisco was invented by Procter
00:30& Gamble and was officially introduced in 1911.
00:34William Procter and James Gamble started using hydrogenated cottonseed oil to make P&G's
00:40soap, which gave them the idea to use this artificially solid oil product in the kitchen.
00:46And that's exactly what the original Crisco was, hydrogenated cottonseed oil. They were
00:51able to convince customers like train lines to use it in place of lard, and they recruited
00:57doctors and rabbis for product testimonials, saying it was a healthier and kosher product
01:03that could replace lard and butter in baking and frying.
01:07Butter is naturally solid at room temperature due to its saturated fats. Lard is the same,
01:13as are oils with a higher saturated fat content, like coconut oil. But other oils, like olive
01:19oil, grapeseed oil, sunflower seed oil, and soybean oil are all liquid all the time.
01:26An article on Healthline explains that their unsaturated fats lack the hydrogen molecule
01:31necessary to render them solid or semi-solid at room temperature. When hydrogen molecules
01:37are added to these oils during processing, they become solid or semi-solid at room temperature,
01:43making them more spreadable, as with Crisco or margarine.
01:47Dr. N. Gamble, with the help of a chemist, came up with this hydrogenation process in
01:52the early 1900s. And according to an article written by Megan Telpner, Crisco was the first
01:59ever food product to include these partially hydrogenated oils. So when the early Crisco
02:04ads touted the absolutely new product, they weren't lying.
02:09Have you ever heard of lettuce oil or cucumber oil? Of course not. As pointed out by nutritionist
02:16and founder of the Academy of Culinary Nutrition, Megan Telpner, oils are derived from grains
02:22like corn oil, fruits like avocado, olive, and coconut oils, and seeds like flaxseed
02:28oil. So why would Crisco claim to be vegetable oil and shortening on their packaging? It's
02:34not entirely clear, but it could be a sign of the times.
02:38In the early 1900s, when the oil was introduced, there might have been less differentiation
02:43between types of plant-derived foods like grains and vegetables. Think about it, many
02:48people still think of corn and avocados as vegetables, right? So it may be as simple
02:53as semantics.
02:55The other possibility is a form of marketing that Telpner refers to as health-washing.
03:00The idea is that if you put a health claim in big, bold letters on the front of food
03:05packaging, people may be more inclined to think the product is good for them, and be
03:09more inclined to buy it. So if early Crisco marketers were trying to influence people's
03:15perception of the fat as being a healthier option than butter or lard, using the words
03:20all-vegetable shortening on the front of the packaging was a smart call.
03:25Cotton seed oil isn't commonly found on grocery store shelves, although, as Healthline points
03:31out, it's often found in processed foods like cookies because it can extend shelf life.
03:36The article in Healthline also notes that in order to meet regulations for use as a
03:41food product, cotton seed oil has to go through refinement, bleaching, and deodorization to
03:47remove gossypol, a toxic compound. This toxic compound must be removed because it's been
03:52linked to infertility, pregnancy problems, liver damage, and respiratory distress.
03:58Unrefined cotton seed oil, the oil with gossypol, has even been used as a pesticide. In other
04:04words, it's not something you want to put in your body. When P&G developed their hydrogenation
04:10method to start making bar soap from liquid oils rather than lard, they also decided to
04:15put it into use in the kitchen. The Weston A. Price Foundation explains that because
04:20P&G was already using cotton seed oil for its soaps, it made sense to continue using
04:26this form of oil.
04:28Unfortunately for everyone who jumped on the hydrogenized oils as health products bandwagon,
04:34time and science started to uncover a nasty truth. Eating lots of hydrogenated oils isn't
04:39as good for you as Crisco and other companies would have you believe. In 2002, P&G sold
04:46Crisco to the J.M. Smucker Company, and the formula was changed in 2007, according to
04:51Fox News.
04:52It's great chicken. No greasy, oily taste.
04:57At just about the same time as P&G was divesting itself of its 90-year-old Crisco brand, more
05:03and more evidence was building that the consumption of hydrogenated oils wasn't all that healthy.
05:09In fact, according to a 2012 NPR article on the history of Crisco, the qualities that
05:15made hydrogenation so appealing to companies and consumers — for instance, making liquid
05:20oils solid and spreadable, increasing shelf life, and enhancing baking and frying capabilities
05:26— all depended on the creation of trans fats. Initially, these fats were thought to
05:32be heart-healthier than saturated fats because they were a form of mono- and polyunsaturated
05:38fats rather than the saturated fats found in lard, butter, or coconut oil.
05:43But in the mid-1990s, studies started indicating that trans fats increased forms of artery-clogging
05:50cholesterol. An article in Healthline details that high consumption of trans fats can lead
05:55to increases in inflammation, impair blood sugar control, and harm heart health. In 2015,
06:02the U.S. Food and Drug Administration started the process of removing artificial trans fats
06:07from processed foods. In response, Crisco changed its formula, and now the classic Crisco
06:13shortening is made of soybean oil, fully hydrogenated palm oil, and other additives.
06:20Numerous studies have found that trans fats are bad for heart health, and the FDA has
06:25effectively banned the addition of artificial trans fats to processed foods. Plus, Crisco
06:30is still available for purchase at grocery stores nationwide, so basic logic should determine
06:36that Crisco doesn't have trans fats, right? Especially since they put that there are zero
06:42grams of trans fats per serving right there on the can. Oh, if only you could trust food
06:47marketers — or the FDA. As pointed out in an article published on NPR's website,
06:53the FDA allows foods that contain less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving to claim
06:59the food contains zero grams of this fat. And the FDA's own website states,
07:04"...it's important to note that trans fat will not be completely gone from foods because
07:09it occurs naturally in small amounts in meat and dairy products and is present at very
07:15low levels in other edible oils."
07:18"...Mom, this is delicious."
07:19"...Too delicious. This is fried in trans fat!"
07:23So if Crisco can list zero grams of trans fats on its label, and the FDA admits there's
07:29this loophole for companies to do so, even if a product has small amounts of trans fats,
07:35how can you know if Crisco has trans fats?
07:38Look at the ingredients listed on Crisco's own website. It's clear that Crisco still
07:42uses hydrogenated oil as an ingredient, which is one of the surefire ways to know whether
07:48a product contains trace amounts of trans fats.
07:52One thing to keep in mind is that Crisco is a brand, not a single product. According to
07:57the Crisco website, what started out as a company featuring a single tub of vegetable
08:02shortening slowly expanded in the 1980s and 1990s, adding easy-to-measure vegetable shortening
08:10sticks followed by the addition of butter-flavored shortening. In 2002, even more products were
08:16added to the brand's lineup. These new additions included oils, sprays, and organic coconut
08:22oil, all designed to help Crisco hold on to its market share of baking oils.
08:28Crisco's line of vegetable shortening includes four total products — the Original Shortening,
08:34Original Shortening Packaged as Sticks, and Butter-Flavored Shortening, as well as Butter-Flavored
08:39Sticks. While the butter-flavored version has a slightly different list of ingredients
08:44than the original version, there are really only two different forms of shortening — original
08:50or butter-flavored. Both versions are made from soybean oil, fully hydrogenated palm
08:55oil, palm oil, mono- and diglycerides, TBHQ, and citric acid. All in all, soybean oil and
09:02palm oil are types of vegetable oils that, when consumed in moderation, are unlikely
09:08to cause major harm.
09:10The catch, of course, is consuming highly processed fats and hydrogenated fats, as this
09:15processing creates trans fats and can strip all other nutrients from these oils. Part
09:21of the reason you know these shortenings are processed is in the addition of mono- and
09:25diglycerides, which help create a better texture for margarine. You should also be aware of
09:31the addition of TBHQ. A Healthline article notes that this additive helps extend shelf
09:37life, but it's highly controversial because it's been linked to health problems, like
09:41liver enlargement, increased incidence of tumors, convulsions, and paralysis in lab
09:47animals.
09:48Granted, the FDA limits how much can be used, and in the case of TBHQ, no more than .02
09:56percent can be present in food. So, word to the wise, it's in Crisco.
10:00What are you doing? That's Crisco!
10:04Crisco's line of liquid oils is actually more extensive than its shortenings, with seven
10:09separate products. In general, products that are 100 percent vegetable oil are a better
10:15option than more processed fat products, like shortening. In the case of Crisco oils, consider
10:21the following.
10:22Crisco's 100 percent oils include pure canola oil, pure vegetable oil, pure corn oil, and
10:29Crisco's blends oil. While all of these are plant-derived fats, and most are considered
10:34good cooking oils, keep a few things in mind.
10:37First, according to an article on Healthline, most inexpensive vegetable oils are derived
10:42from genetically modified plants. Second, according to another Healthline article, because
10:48it requires a lot of processing to extract oil from these grains and seeds, they're more
10:53likely to oxidize and become unstable or rancid. Finally, oils like corn oil are high
11:00in omega-6 fatty acids, which are linked with increased inflammation.
11:05Both Crisco's peanut oil and frying oil blends are designed to be good for frying, but they
11:09include additives like TBHQ, which, as discussed previously, may be linked to health problems.
11:17As for its canola oil, they add in omega-3s, making it arguably a more heart-healthy option.
11:23But a word to the wise, this oil comes with a warning — it will catch fire if overheated.
11:30Crisco offers a five-product line of cooking sprays. These sprays are highly pressurized
11:35canisters of various types of vegetable oil that also all include a few undesirable ingredients.
11:42For most people, soy lecithin is a benign food additive used as a lubricant, in this
11:48case to help prevent sticking. According to Healthline, it's usually added in such
11:53small amounts it's unlikely to cause problems. That said, if you have a severe soy allergy,
11:59talk to your doctor about using products that contain it.
12:02According to Chosen Foods, dimethylsilicon, an anti-foaming agent, may be harmless in
12:08small amounts, but it hasn't been researched extensively, and it's unclear if there could
12:13be negative health effects. One thing to keep in mind — it's also included in things like
12:18cosmetics and textile finishing products. Obviously, to spray a cooking oil, you need
12:24something to encourage this release from its pressurized can. It's unclear what type of
12:29propellant Crisco uses, but according to Chosen Foods, common choices include nitrous oxide,
12:36carbon dioxide, propane, and butane or isobutane. So yeah, it's up to you whether you want a
12:43quick spray of propane in your foods.
12:46Coconut oil is one of those oils that for years was vilified for being high in saturated
12:52fat content. But as science mounted in the 2000s, indicating that plant-based saturated
12:58fats like coconut oil might not be as heart-unhealthy as previously thought, coconut oil made a
13:04comeback. According to Healthline, one thing that differentiates the saturated fats in
13:09coconut oil from saturated fats in animal fats is that most of these saturated fats
13:15are considered medium-chain fatty acids rather than long-chain fatty acids. Medium-chain
13:21fatty acids seem to boost heart health rather than hurting it. For instance, lauric acid,
13:27which accounts for 42 percent of coconut oil, has a positive effect on increasing HDL, good
13:33cholesterol. Steric acid, also found in coconut oil, can help lower LDL, bad cholesterol,
13:40and doesn't appear to have a negative effect on heart health. And finally, capric acid,
13:45which is about 4 percent of coconut oil, is rapidly metabolized, has been linked to weight
13:51loss, increased insulin sensitivity, and anti-seizure effects. To be clear, more research still
13:57needs to be done, but early headlines pushing coconut oil as a heart-healthy option had
14:03companies clamoring to add coconut oil to their line of products.
14:07Crisco was no different and now sells two types, refined organic and unrefined organic.
14:14The main difference is the refined version has been processed to eliminate the coconut
14:18flavor and smell from the oil.