Is there a difference between Crisco and the generic vegetable shortning? The ingredients are identical. The price is not.

I have never tried the generic shortening. I will be curious to see what others have to say. Here's you a bump!

I bought the Walmart brand once and yes, there IS a difference. The Walmart brand wasn't as smooth. It was quite "oily" for lack of a better word. After that, I've never bought anything but Crisco again.

I have never used the generic brand only crisco. I have always been told that the generic doesny work well

I bought to Walmart brand today. Tomorrow I'll make a batch with it as well as with the rest of the Crisco I have. I'll post the results.

thanks greenhorn. I will be interested to see your results!

I have tried the walmart brand and yes you are better off buying crisco.
Walmart brand is yellowish looking not like crisco and really oily , greasier tasting. I want to try hi ratio shortening. I will only need a small amount since i only make this type of shortening once or twice a year.

I have tried generic shortening and it not as nearly as good. i have also mixewd with crisco and it didnt turn out either. i have recently switched to hi ratio with buttercream base and i will never go back. it is far superior to butter and crisco. highly reccomend it if you can get it.
Ally

I didn't have any luck with the generic brand either. I didn't like the "mouth feel" that it left. I use only crisco....would like to try the hi-ratio sometime too though.

I've used generic before too, and not gotten results as good as with Crisco. The ingredients may be identical, but they even look different. Crisco is much more white, and the generic you can almost see thru it for lack of a better way of explaining it.

I've used generics and I can tell you...stay away from the walmart one The only one I found that I liked just as much as Crisco was Kroger store brand. I found out it's made by the same company that supplies Crisco (Bunge I think it was). That's all I use now.

Yikes I bought one cheepy tub and it said "Prepared with meat trimmings"......sooo spooky cause i dont eat beef or pork and I was imagining what a meat trimming was. I use the blue crisco it is 100% vegetable. I will try any generic if it is all vegeatble and not meat trimmings... I lll check Kroger ingredients.

ooh, okay then Lisa, it must be "Safe"..Thank you.

I tried using the generic and my frosting was gritty, the powdered sugar did not absorb well at all. I also only use Crisco.

i bought a generic and it looks exactly the same as crisco in color and consistency, but i live in Guatemala so that may be the difference

i hate generic as well....i wont use it in my cooking or decorating

I do use generic. Crisco is much more expensive and all you are paying for is the name. The ingredients are exactly the same!!

Also, the bakery I used to work for(which is well known in the Chicagoland area) used generic too! It came in these big 50 pound buckets and I tell ya, the name on the bucket was definetly not crisco!!!

well the "animal fat" shortenings are either lard or suet. pork or beef fat respectively. Back in the day before vegetable fat was used that's what they had. Lard, suet (which gets rock hard when it's cold) or butter. They used to also make candles out of the beef fat back in colonial times. Beeswax was only used for special occasion candles as it would burn much cleaner than the animal fat candles. But I digress, (sheesh, will someone tell me to shut up) LOL. I do use the generic for one simple reason, the crisco for some reason has a funky taste to it. Don't know what it is but I don't like the funky crisco taste at all. But also don't like the oily feel of the store brand either. And no I don't have access to hi-ratio shortening here, DANG!!! So what do I do, the age old question..... taste or substance. hmmmmmm.......... I'll have to get back with you on that one

Mmm, my Wilton teacher warned me not to go generic on Crisco. She said that the results would not be the same... so, I was too scared too..

I use generic - the Kroger brand. For me, it seems to work well. I have even used the kroger brand butter flavor and I don't notice a difference. I make sure that I mix well, and it doesn't have the grainy feel. First I mix the pinch of salt with the water until it is disolved then I mix the shortening - flavoring - and water together. Once it is well blended I add my powdered sugar. I'd use regular crisco, but the kroger brand is so much cheaper and tastes the same

A lot of grocery stores own generic brands are often the same as the name brand just packaged differently. Kroger brand tissues are the same as the regular Kleenex.

I usually use the kroger brand to because of the price difference. But I did get out to sams club just a couple of weekends ago and picked up the 6lb of crisco there, ONLY because it was $5 for it though, who could pass that up for that price!!!! But I honestly don't see a difference in the icing Could be maybe the difference is more in the animal fat vs. vegetable fat, are different generics different that way maybe? I use the krogers and crisco so I haven't paid attention to the others

I think whoever makes the generic also makes the difference. I don't know who makes the Roundy's generic but I did NOT like it for frosting.
It works great though when I am melting chocolates.