Anyone Else Notice Crisco..
Decorating By SweetConfectionsChef Updated 18 Feb 2013 , 5:31pm by dryerson
On mine, I initially thought that I had whipped it too long or added too much cream. Then I figured it had to be the weather - but you know, I didn't do anything differently than I normally do. I passed it off as just my inattentiveness until I read this thread and checked my Crisco bucket and had a duh huh moment. On the crumb coat, it didn't want to stay put, but I forced it into submission. Then on the details, it just wasn't "playing nice" so I changed my design a bit.
Was trans-fats ever listed on the cans in the first place? I just don't remember ever noticing it before all this came up a while back. It seems to me like trans fats, at least public knowledge of them, is a fairly recent thing.
The Crisco cans I buy now are the same as I have ever bought.
Here's a question: how long do you blend your shortening and liquids before you start to add the sugars? I mix mine for for several min before adding the dry stuff. And if I add 1/2 butter I mix it even longer tomake sure it's all very very smoothe and there aren't any little bumps of anything left. I think that makes a huge difference.
I think it's the Hydrogenated part on the old cans that makes it Trans-Fat on attack.
Please correct me if I'm wrong. The only time I see Crisco cans is when my mum makes her famous dessert that registers at 300+ when our blood is tested. 
K, here's the scoop on trans fats, It's ANY fat that has been hydrogenated. (hydrogen gas introduced to cream the fat) It causes a chemical reaction that makes regular oil into a creamy mixture that holds it's shape somewhat. That's why some people use only butter, because butter has no transfat neither does lard.(rendered pork fat) or suet(rendered beef fat) Even though in the suet processing a very strong form of vinegar is used to extract it. The stuff we use in the kitchen is 5% the stuff they use for rendering is between 80-90%. So Don't know if I would use the suet for anything besides making bird seed pinecones or soap.
I just checked out the Crisco website - as of
Jan 24 2007 Crisco has zero trans fat.
I got a new mixer for Christmas and used it after the first of the year and have been having trouble & I thought it was just me and the new KA. Now I know I'm not totally crazy!
I just checked out the Crisco website - as of
Jan 24 2007 Crisco has zero trans fat.
I got a new mixer for Christmas and used it after the first of the year and have been having trouble & I thought it was just me and the new KA. Now I know I'm not totally crazy!
I thought the exact same thing! I just got a 6 qt KA in February, and thought I was a dufus and just couldn't make icing in it! Glad to know it's not me!
I looking at the recipes on the Crisco site - Vanilla frosting is made with 2/3 C of Crisco with 2 lbs of powered sugar & 2/3 cups of milk - I think next week I will try it this way.
Friday night a girl from work came over to make Snickerdoodle cookies but she brought the sticks - which I never used - that dough was soft and spread more - now I wonder if this was the cause of that.
My homemade biscuit's this morning were flat and I have used this recipe forever...
My grandmother would roll over in her grave if she knew someone messed up with crisco..
My grandmother would roll over in her grave if she knew someone messed up with crisco..
Oh my goodness, mine, too!!
OK, dug around in the back of the cupboard and sure enough there was an old empty Crisco can waitng to become a grease can. The label says that it contains 1.5 g trans fat. The label on the all-blue cans that I just bought (thinking I was getting the old formula) exactly matches the one on the "new" cans except the new ones have the green banner proclaiming "0 trans fat". Meanwhile, I stopped at our local restaurant supply store and got a can of their Holsum brand shortening--containing 2.5 g of artery-clogging trans fat! Yum. I'm off to give it a try right now. Will let you all know how it turns out.
Wow, I guess I have been living in the dark ages 'cause I rarely use crisco and didn't notice that they have been messing with it. I ONLY use hi-ratio shortening in my icings and haven't been paying much attention to the controversy!! I hope they figure it out that they are going to lose business if decorators are unhappy with the product!
Honestly though, who here uses Crisco for anything other than icing? Why tinker with a product that was never intended to be on the "most healthy" list anyway? It's like taking all of the ice cream off of the shelf and substituting it with iced milk (who here remembers that).
!!!I just checked my generic crisco that I bought this weekend...STILL SHOWS 3g of TRANSFAT!!!! Yeah!!
It is the walmart brand, I better go stock up before they screw with it.
i havent read through every post, so i dont know if this has been mentioned,BUT... i have not noticed a difference. i like butter better, but if i use shortening, i use half butter, half shortening. i also use MERINGUE POWDER (1 and 1/2 tb per 3 cup recipe) to stabalize the icing- works great. so if you are having a problem with softer icing, try adding M.P. , i am sure it will make a huge difference. if you are concerned about flavor, use milk instead of water, part butter, and add a good vanillla (madagasgar bourbon vanilla is yummy). i am not in the least bit concerned that the crisco is trans fat free, in fact , i am glad.
Who knew crisco could cause such controversy!! I looked at my "sticks" a minute ago and they still said 1.5 on the transfat! I'm in Arkansas and we are the LAST state to get "new" products so maybe I'll be safe for a while! So if you live close to the boarder of Arkansas, maybe it'd be worth driving over for some "original" crisco!!
......and substituting it with iced milk (who here remembers that).
"Uh, *I* do!" she said, shyly raising her hand from the back of the room.
(And actually, as a kid I liked it better. It had little ice crystals in it that made it taste colder! 'Course I always was a weird little kid!)
Okay...here are the results of my experiment....
My recipe is this:
2 Cups crisco
2lb bag of ps
1 T vanilla
1 T butter flavor
2 pinches salt
about 2/3 cup water
First experiment:
added 1/3 cup more crisco
RESULT: YUCK....tasted greasy and was even softer than before
2nd experiment:
added 1 cup more ps
RESULT: HORRIBLE....icing was dry and cracked
3rd experiment:
added less water
RESULT: NOT AS BAD AS PREVIOUS....still soft but cracking how does that happen???
4th experiment:
added 2T Meringue Powder
RESULT: THE BEST SO FAR...but still far from what I was making a week ago! I don't see how I could even make roses or any buttercream flowers with this! Especially with Houston humidity!
I stopped after the 4th batch. I just couldn't do it any longer! I'm so upset....I have a big festival the next two weekends in the tourist area my shop is in and weddings every weekend through July (except one for vacation)! What I want to know is with it sliding off the cakes how will we even be able to put fondant on them??? I use fondant accents all of the time! The bc is just way too unstable for this!
Has anyone used the generic Walmart brand? I've never tried it but if I have to use it...I will. I do all of my shopping at Walmart and Sam's Club and I really don't have time to go running everywhere every week to get shortening! 
Sorry to be such a crybaby but this is so not good for my business!
What's this about cornstarch? 
Please someone explain and I will try it tomorrow! TIA.
Thanks guys! -Sweet
SweetConfectionsChef,
If you have a GFS (Gordon Food Service) in the area, you can order Hi-Ratio (Alpine, I believe) Shortening. Last time I checked it was about $60 for 50 lbs. It might be worth it to check it out! Good Luck! I feel for you!
Has anyone used the generic Walmart brand? I've never tried it but if I have to use it...I will.
You won't!
read this thread just before I went to WalMart to get some non-cake stuff (there is such a thing?).
so, dutifully went over to the cake isle to check out the shortenings.
well, guess what -- walmart's brand is ALSO 0g trans fat!
there was another brand there that is a local brand that still listed 1g trans fat so will have to try it I guess..
that or make the switch to hi-ratio (which will have to be mail order in this area!)
Doug, there's a supply place in Florence - naturally, I can't remember the name, but I will ask my sister tomorrow - where you can get the restaurant supply stuff.
thanks but that's about 3 hours from me!
there's not much at this end of NC
(lumberton boasts that it has 2000+ motel/hotel rooms! -- not much else!)
Doug, there's a supply place in Florence - naturally, I can't remember the name, but I will ask my sister tomorrow - where you can get the restaurant supply stuff.
thanks but that's about 3 hours from me!
there's not much at this end of NC
(lumberton boasts that it has 2000+ motel/hotel rooms! -- not much else!)
I have to travel though Lumberton a lot - it's a quaint place to pass through. Sister in Latta and mother in Ruby SC, inlaws in Morehead. At least you have a good farmer's market nearby!
I'm doing a styro-cake tonight. Maybe it's different on a real cake, but I found no difference in the icing I made with the zero trans.. Icing went on smooth ... no noticeable increase in air holes ... not overly soft. I also made a batch of flowers to put on another styro I'll be doing tomorrow .... roses, daisies, apple blossoms, drop flowers .... no drooping, they are holding their shape just fine, they are crusting/drying ok. Icing did not seem to soften from the heat in my hand when holding the bag.
I iced 3 styro's .... by the time I finished the 3rd one, the first one had crusted well enough for me to do some smoothing on it.
The reason I wont' use Sysco shortening is due to the change of taste it made in my icing. I'm very leary about switching to any other brand for this reason.
I'm ok with the Crisco zero-trans. I don't see any difference.
well I quit using Crisco in February when I heard about the change... I always make a 50/50 buttercream anyway...so I just switched to a store brand... I have used one from Winn Dixie... one from walmart (not a GValue or sams brand though) and also one from a Local Dollar General....they all worked great...they all list trans fat on their labels... and switching didnt alter the taste of my BC at all! 
OK, so I am only 2 pages into this and I have to post!
I thought I was going crazy! My course 2 final cake, the border fell off before I even got home. AND when I was smoothing the top of the cake it was "hole-y" (is that a word LOL)
I didn't even think that it was my crisco. I just thought I was beating it too mcuh.
Thanks for the post! Now back to reading the rest.
Crisco sticks are also trans-fat free. I bought (but haven't tried yet) the Kroger store brand that lists 2.5 g trans fats. I hope to try it tomorrow.
Deanna
What's this about cornstarch?
Please someone explain and I will try it tomorrow! TIA.Thanks guys! -Sweet
Hi SCC -
Ten years ago when I took the Wilton courses from a woman who had already been a WMI for nearly 30 years, she gave us her own shortening-based buttercream recipe that did not call for meringue powder but rather cornstarch. I started teaching immediately after I finished the three Wilton courses and did as she did, but after a couple of years ended up omitting the cornstarch altogether. I now only ask students to add cornstarch to their buttercream to stiffen it for roses, at a ratio of 4 T unpacked cornstarch per 2 cups of buttercream. At times, when I need a really stiff dam of icing to hold in a generous amount of soft filling between layers of cake, I add cornstarch to my icing, and it works very well to stiffen icing without adding or subtracting from its taste. I never use meringue powder because 1) it's expensive; 2) it does nothing for my icing; and 3) I think it imparts a subtle but weird taste to the icing.
Maybe adding 1 to 2 T per 2 cups of icing will be enough for those who are experiencing soft icing. 
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