UPDATE:

I was just sitting here reading Sandie's comments and guess what? My phone rang...it was the Smucker Corp. that owns Crisco!!! They said they rec'd and appreciate my email. She will be passing my email over to a brand manager because since this is a new product they are very concerned with what consumers are saying. She's indicated they want to do what they can to keep current customers from switching to other brands.

She said the new formula works great with THEIR recipes, but she understands from many others responses that there seems to be issues with other recipes. She mentioned their main source of complaints have been with icing.

Thanks Msauer:
That is good to know. I am glad you posted the info about your phone call. When I contacted them, I just suggested they go to CC and check out the forum and read the comments.

Good job Msauer!! You know the old saying about the squeaky wheel getting the grease (no pun intended). Maybe they will do something about our Crisco!

Diane

It's nice to hear they are being so responsive!

i just sent my email to crisco advising them of the problem and complaining about the change. it is icing after all, and it is suppose to be a treat in moderation.

you're right, maybe if we flood them with emails they'll listen to us.

I went to crisco.com and submitted my complaint. It took about 2 minutes...I hope everyone that is unhappy with the new formula takes a few moments to express their dissatisfaction.

Wow! I just got a call from Crisco also! Talk about fast action! The woman was very nice and asked me a series of questions...she then told me that they have been flooded with complaints from bakers! When the new product was tested they didn't test it in icing....I guess they didn't realize how much us bakers depend on their product! They know now! Anyway, she said the issue is going up the ladder and is going to be addressed by a special group. I hope they do something....

OMG... I can't believe I didn't see this post earlier..... It's not ME!!!!!!!!! SOOOOO glad to hear of others misery, cuz I thought I was slipping back to my beginning skills in not being consistent in my frosting!! Just knowing that others are having the same problems that just about killed my ambitions is soooo comforting!! REALLY..... this, like, totally explains the near disaster (read 'rebuild') of my best friends wedding cake last month...wow! Guess I'll go to the website and then make a trip to the only store in town that I know of who still sells the transfat crisco! I'm stockin' up!!

I still chuckle over the concept of trying to make grease more healthy.[/quote]

I nearly hit the floor lauging at your quote! My dogs are looking at me like I'm crazy!

I also am very impressed at the response of Crisco. I have contacted other companies with problems and have never received a phone call. Usually it is a generic email that doesn't solve anything. Makes me glad I have used their product for so many years!

Diane

I just emailed them myself... If I receive a phone call, I will let everyone know...

I emailed my complaint in also because not only was my icing softer and foamy, but when you would add color to it, it had little white specks of shortening all in it that didn't and wouldn't blend in. I received a call back from a lady advising that they were working to try and resolve the problem. That they were getting flooded by complaints from bakers and apologizing profusely (think I spelled that one wrong) for the inconveinence that the new crisco was causing. Unfortunatley they had no ideas or tips to pass along to make the new product work for us. We will have to see what they come up with I guess.

i also received a call from smuckers about my email. i wasn't at home to get to talk to them though in this day and age i think all the young cooks are using olive, canola (you know ) healthy oils to cook with. thats all my son and his friends will use. i really think that we are the only folks that buy a lot of crisco on a regular basis. oh, and us folks in the south who still fry everything that is not tied down.

to you all who have tried the house brands of shorting, a question??? when you were not using color in it was your icing still white white, not off white. please advise. thanks and have a great day.

Have a new question about the Crisco. Are any of you using the Melvira Method to smooth your icing? In another thread someone said they were having trouble getting their icing to smooth with the roller. I wondered if maybe it might have something to do with the Crisco.

Diane

I just did the Melvira method for the first time yesterday ... .used the zero trans crisco. LUV'd it! (see my thread "Another Melvira Method Convert").

But I'm not having any problems with the new crisco, so......?

Sorry this is long:

I was just at the store this morning, they had 1 carton of 3 packs old crisco, I took 8 packages home. They had 2 cartons of the new stuff and a lot of the round containers in different sized of the new stuff. No more containers of the old stuff.
I must say I did not notice the butter crisco with 0 transfat. (I just saw it on their website).
I realized that I have used the new crisco and it did not work right for me either this is before I was aware of the change.
Ok, but I am really confused.
While I was at the store there was 2 Food Salesperson from another baking goods company, they were watching me take all the crisco and I was reading the lables. They asked what I was doing, I said the new crisco does not work the same as the old and I know a lot of bakers are not happy with it when it comes to frosting. If you need a pure white Icing and dont want to use simpel syrup and butter, Crisco is or was the way to go.
One of them said he used to work for Crisco and he was not surprise, they missed something.
We all looked and the lables and could not see the differences in the new vs the old, the % were the same, the amounts and the list of ingredients were also the same. We checked a few sizes and cans to make sure. So I am very confused. I will go to the Crisco web site and put in my questions and see what happens.

So if anyone has both the old and new, can you check the lable and see the ingredients and listing on the back, are yours different??
I was trying to find the spot on the crisco web site and could not find it.
Anyhow, I hope that as bakers and bakeries who might be using their stuff, realize what has occured we can figured out something.

It brings me to this questions. Are there transfats in Butter and if there is what is NY doing about it?? Is everyone starting to use smart balance instead of Pure Butter?

I am originally from Montreal and when Margarine came out he Dairy community came out with the campaign: "When I ask for Butter don't give me anything else!"
Or something like that, I only remember the french on: "Quand je veux du beurre, donne moi pas d'autre chose!"

Well I'm pretty sure I want my crisco back!

Side note, my store was also out of C&H powder sugar and I asked the store manager, if it was discontinued as there was no spot on the shelf for it. He said no it's coming in tonight. Phew! I just about had a meltdown! I told him, Crisco is messing with my icing now no C&H. All is good I will go back tomorrow.

Good Luck.

Update -

I just received my phone call. Apparently there are two very nice ladies calling folks back.

They are aware of the CC site, but haven't had the time to read the thread.

She asked me about
1. Gel Paste coloring
2. Consistency of the icing
3. If my recipe called for any type of heating of the shortening
4. Melting of icing

There was one more, but I forgot.

Bottom line is that Smuckers' Corp is listening to us. What they do with the information is another thing...

She made a comment about that Smuckers may make a Crisco just for bakers. I told her that would be fine, but I didn't want to be charged more because it was considered a speciality item for bakers.

I also advised her that 'if' Crisco did charge more to bakers to keep the original recipe that they would loose customers based on price. We didn't ask for Crisco to change their recipe, but we don't want to be taken advantage of either.

She encourage all of us to email the company from the website. She said that examples of our problems would get the attention from the upper level executives and enginers.

So for those of you who are very concerned or if you cake reputations are on the line due to icing issues, do not hesitate to email them and give the examples of the issues.

Ever hear of Boycotting? That speaks louder than anything, we could find a cheaper fix just until it forces them to bring back the old stuff. Ya , think? Anybody have any thing you use besides Crisco that works? I have to say I'm a Crisco fan too, but this makes me fighting mad. Haha....... Or what about new labeling like with cigarettes or booze, what's made with this can be hazardous to your health and let the consumer decide. Sheesh, there has got to be something that will work don't you think?

Nope , I just used Crisco, milk, sugar, flavoring. The only thing I noticed was air bubbles which I NEVER had a problem with before and believe me I beat my frosting for a good while. This is all interesting though. I'm getting ready to fry my chicken in it , wonder how that's gonna be?????????

Oh wow!!! I'm so glad I just saw this...

I TOO noticed that my icing this weekend was way soft!!! I thought it had something to do with the erratic weather (hot, cold, freezing, hot, windy, cold) but NOW I GET IT! I had noticed the "No trans fat" label, but didn't put 2 and 2 together...duh! Thanks guys, I will definitely email the company on this as well! BAKERS UNITE!!!

I haven't noticed a change in my frosting with the new Crisco, and that's the recipe I use except I use water instead of milk/cream - maybe that's the difference? I'd be curious to know if others that have not had a problem with the new Crisco use water or milk/cream.....

~Chelle