Anyone else notice Crisco.. - Page 18

The argument of "they're doing the responsible thing" doesn't fly here... If we bakers and Crisco did a campaign "Forget Trans-fats: Get off your assets" would be a "responsible thing" and truth about the Nanny issues, but exercise as the solution to a lot of problems is NOT popular. It's not WHAT we eat that is killing people (unless you're drinking stuff that belongs under the sink or in a locked cabinet), it's that we aren't ACTIVE enough to consume huge quantities and the medical community is also at fault because they are not screening people that come in complaining of weight issues for several health issues/diagnosis' that have "FAT" as a SYMPTOM (cushings, diabetes, thyroid problems, depression, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and and and), they instead brush everyone off that says "I need help losing this ___ final pounds" and only say "eat less and exercise more, have a nice day! don't let the door hit you in the !", they don't say "cut trans-fats out of your diet and you'll lose that 100 pounds instantly", they kick your butt out the door for doing the responsible thing and "check with your doctor before starting a strenuous exercise program"..

If you want trans-fats gone, you're saying "NO" to butter, margarine, and lard, your saturated fat alternatives for the products we're making (that nasty thing called FROSTING )... Yes, people are allergic to apples, corn, palm, coconut, and soybeans too so you can't use applesauce or others as the alternative to fat in every recipe. This IS about choice. None of my customers are knocking on my door demanding I bake a healthier cake. They KNOW cake isn't an everyday indulgence. If you want to market yourself as a "trans-fat free bakery", then FINE, do so, that's your own CHOICE as a business owner. Notice that no one really cares yet other than people like my "buy into every fad and health crazed diet of the day" mother-in-law without considering that the alternatives to Crisco are FAR worse in the long term. It's similar to when people had their eyes opened up that Organic doesn't equal healthy with the E. Coli in Lettuce & Spinach outbreak. I love the flakiness that lard gives to breads and pastries, but Crisco is still a lot healthier. People as a whole are not concerned because cake, donuts, brownies, cookies, are TREATS, not something they personally consume huge amounts of every day or every week.

The FDA did not distinguish between NATURALLY occurring Trans-fats and those artificially made. Our life spans are FAR FAR longer now than they were before the advent of Crisco and margarine for that matter. If it's not Crisco that they're jumping on, it's sugar, if it's not sugar, it's grain, if it's not grain, it's corn, if it's not corn, it's peanuts, or this, that, or the next thing. EVERYTHING including filtered water is bad for you in the wrong amount. You can kill yourself drinking water. We are all going to die at some point in life. It's about choice. People are responsible for their own choices, the worst is that this country has gotten into a slump where it doesn't want to hold people accountable. Crisco is finding itself accountable to a lot of bakers right now because of a choice THEY made, from those people called CUSTOMERS. If all of us bailed on Crisco, that's a LOT of product they aren't going to sell which means, hit them where it hurts, their wallet. I can hear the headline now "Smuckers Corp. lays off ____ workers today because of a slump in sales due to a change in their Crisco line of products"... Six Sigma I say!!!! (to those who changed our beloved Crisco without product testing on Frosting or polling their customers to find out what they REALLY use their Crisco for -- that's why the green cans had DUST on them)..

As another PP said, let's hope this dies its own natural death just like New Coke did...

Is it the lack of trans fat that has failed our icings or is it something else or even something in the process? If they had to change anything in the process couldn't that affect the texture of the product? Maybe they will have to come up with a solution other than bringing back the trans. If that's the case it will take awhile for something to be done.

I believe that trans fats and saturated fats are two different things. Saturated fats and cholesterol have about the same effect on the heart and body, which of course is bad. But to my knowledge, trans fats are much worse than both of those because they at least are natural fats. Trans fats are chemically (unnatural) stabilized fats to produce a longer shelf, correct? I think this is the difference, does anyone else know?

P.S. remember the Donald's line... "It's not Personal, it's Business"... When they tell each of us "we're looking into it" and "it wasn't tested on icing", "we're letting X person know about it", it means NOTHING. It's a feel good marketing maneuver to keep us buying a sub-par product change if only a little longer. It's college level marketing but it makes each of us feel good to get a call from the company because it makes them look like they're doing something. If they truly are trying to change their formula to get it to work, they would be asking a better group of questions. They aren't. They aren't asking "what brand of colorings do you use", "what recipe(s) are you using", "what are your observations of what is happening", etc. No, they're saying "we're looking into it"..

Nikki... I honestly believe it's something in the PROCESS, not the trans-fat part of things that they changed that is the problem. I have a relative who has her Ph.D. in Food Science and works for a national company as a food scientist (we've been her lab rat on more than one occasion only to find out about 6mo later what the product was).. The problem is that their (smuckers) research process was flawed and they missed a large population of their customers in the testing otherwise they would have known about this earlier before they released the change to the public at large. As for the other alternative product options, the problem is that the FDA didn't distinguish between the two (natural vs. artificial) trans-fats when they made their ruling. They had already ruled that "Saturated fats" are a no-no too..

Whenever a company tries to claim "....our marketing research shows...." as a defense for why a product SHOULD be working (because we all must be too STUPID to know how great it is because their marketing researched SHOWED.........!), all you have to do is say two words......

New. Coke.

According to Coke, all of their marketing research showed this was going to be SUCH a big hit, they were confident enough to remove the tried and true from the market.

Well, we all know how THAT turned out!

Course 1 / Week 3 class -

I was nearly in tears tonight at cake class when I pulled the top of my perfectly smooth as glass BC frosted cake made with the NEW and IMPROVED Crisco. It was oozzing a sticky clear gunk! It was like my cake was crying with me!

I live in Houston and the weather is not humid at this time so I don't think that had anything to do with it.

To smooth it out, I used the warm water, dried off and damp blade method a friend of mine suggested. The warmth on the blade made the icing very smooth. I don't know.... maybe I used a damp blade more often than I thought instead of the dry warm blade.

Another girl in class made the same clown cake, but colored her icing red. She used the dried warm blade technique, but her icing had little white spots all over it when she showed up to class. It was like soap bubbles had popped all over her cake!

The jury is still out as to whether the problems were caused by the Crisco or Newbie errors.

Personally, I think it is more of the Crisco. Darn Air bubbles! I made icing all day on Sunday using different speeds and times to make my icing and it all came out with air bubbles as big as Dallas!

I heard there is a shortening on the market that professional bakers use, but it very expensive and hard to find and the instructor said she couldn't remember the name.

If I find out... I'll post it... I would rather pay a little more money for a shortening that will work and Crisco can kiss my business good bye!

I hate to sound like I am beating a dead horse... but this is darn right crazy!

I was at Walmart today and they still have a generic brand which is Walmarts I guess it had 2.5 trans fat. I am still going to experiment with Crisco because I think it will all be banned soon. I did make a cake in January 2 tiered. I may have seen a little sagging the next day but very minimal. No one noticed it but me. Of course it was cold then. I do not know about hot weather. It is dry where I live in Idaho. The icing I made used whip cream. I will just take this a challenge and keep experimenting. Of course I do this as a hobby. But I do know I will go on and on about everything that is not right with a cake, and people look at me like what is wrong with you. It looks great. We are our own worst enemy. I do know this is a special issue though.

sarahnichole975 and CoutureCake thank you for your rants. I have been reading all kind of stuff and it really all comes down to personal decisions. Just like so many of us have been saying.
I ask people what they want and they choose the transfats. As long as we are responsible about how much we consume, then we are doing it right.
I read somewhere that we are (almost the whole planet) as a people addicted to sugar and if you go into communities that do not have sugar, they dont know what they are missing therefore they adjust and have better health. Well, I tried to cut out almost all sugar and it worked for about 6 months. I lost weight and I felt a lot better, but I still had those times when I just wanted a piece of bread or a chocolate or something sweet and a fruit any fruit can only go so far The diets with the good kind of carbs are mostly GF and your body does feel a lot better, but you can only eat so much gourds and yams and rice noodles.
We live in a time when we can almost get anything out there, maybe we are not ready, but how go you get the rabbit back into the hat or the cat back into the bag. It's out there and people want it. So until everyone decides they dont want it, we should still be able to make the bad stuff and enjoy it a little tiny piece at a time.
It's getting late, I have to prep for a chocolate demo for tomorrow. I better go.

Good Luck everyone, I hope we all find a happy solution somewhere out there.

How desperate I have become! I put out an email to friends and family that reach across the country, asking for the "old" crisco.

I have not used crisco in years. I would work my self to death just opening the cans ( I use so much). We have a local food distributor who sells to the public. I buy a 50# box of baking and icing shortening for about $42.00 I use two to three of these a month. You actually save a lot of money and it is the same stuff the bakery uses. If takes less of this . I use 6 cups shortening 8# sugar 2 1/2 cups water and lots of flavoring.

darylrc: do you know if this is a high ratio shortening and also, would it act the same, do you think, if milk was used in lieu of water? I like that it uses less fat and more liquid... probably makes it lighter over all..

I sent e-mail to Crisco and they called me. The rep asked my a few questions, I expressed my thoughts/problems and she told me that they are flooded with complaints from "bakers". She didn't know what the outcome would be. But at least we're being heard.

just wondering has any one tried 1/2 store brand with TF and 1/2 new crisco to see if it may blance out ? I had frozzen a batch of icing made of the new crisco it didnt even get hard it had been in the frezzer a month the old would frezze this new just breaks down

In this whole transfat / crisco debate - does anyone else agree that icing and cake were never intended to be healthy? That dessert is called fruit. Healthy buttercream is an oxymoron, eliminating the transfats is nothing more than pandering and will do nothing in the longrun. We will later find that the substitutes are just as harmful as the original.