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How Crisco defeated lard – and made Americans believe in industrial food
Perhaps you will discover a can of Crisco for the Christmas cake season. In that case, you will be one of the millions of Americans who, for generations, have used you to make cookies, cakes, pie crusts and more. But despite all the popularity of Crisco, what exactly is that thick, white substance in the can? If you are not sure, you are not alone. For decades, Crisco had only one ingredient, cottonseed oil. But most consumers never knew that. This ignorance was not accidental. A century ago, Crisco marketers were pioneers in revolutionary advertising techniques that encouraged consumers not to worry about ingredients and instead to trust trusted brands. It was a successful strategy that other companies would eventually copy. Lard wins some competition For most of the 19th century, cotton seeds were a nuisance. When cottoners combed growing cotton crops from the South to produce clean fiber, they left mountains of seeds behind. The first attempts to grind these seeds resulted in an unpleasantly dark and smelly oil. Many farmers simply let their cottonseed piles rot. It was only after a chemist named David Wesson pioneered bleaching and industrial deodorization techniques in the late 19th century that cottonseed oil became clear, tasteless and smelled neutral enough to attract consumers. Soon, companies were selling cottonseed oil alone as a liquid or mixing it with animal fats to make cheap, solid fats, sold in buckets to look like lard. The main rival for shortening was lard. Previous generations of Americans produced lard at home after pig slaughter in the fall, but by the end of the 19th century meat processing companies were producing lard on an industrial scale. Lard had a noticeable taste of pork, but there is not much evidence that 19th century Americans objected to it, even in cakes and pies. Instead, his problem was the cost. Although lard prices remained relatively high during the early 20th century, cottonseed oil was plentiful and cheap. Americans, at the time, predominantly associated cotton with dresses, shirts and napkins, not food. However, the first companies of cottonseed oil and body fat did everything to highlight their connection with cotton. They praised the transformation of the cotton seed from unpleasant remains into a useful consumer product as a sign of ingenuity and progress. Brands like Cottolene and Cotosuet drew attention to cotton by their names and by incorporating images of cotton in their advertisements. King CriscoWhen Crisco was launched in 1911, things were different. Like other brands, it was made of cottonseed. But it was also a new type of fat – the world’s first solid fat made entirely of vegetable oil that was once liquid. Instead of solidifying cottonseed oil by mixing it with animal fat like other brands, Crisco used a totally new process called hydrogenation, which Procter & Gamble, creator of Crisco, has perfected after years of research and development. From the beginning, the company’s marketing professionals talked a lot about the wonders of hydrogenation – what they called the “Crisco process” – but avoided any mention of the cottonseed. There was no law at the time requiring food companies to list ingredients, although virtually all food packaging provided at least enough information to answer the most fundamental of all questions: what is it? In contrast, Crisco traders offered only evasion and euphemism. Crisco was made of “100% fat”, say its marketing materials, and “Crisco is Crisco and nothing more”. Sometimes, they gestured towards the vegetable kingdom: Crisco was “strictly vegetable”, “purely vegetable” or “absolutely all vegetable”. In its most specific form, the ads said it was made of “vegetable oil”, a relatively new phrase that Crisco helped to popularize. But why take so much effort to avoid mentioning cottonseed oil if consumers were already consciously buying it from other companies? The truth is that the cottonseed had a mixed reputation and was only getting worse when Crisco was launched. A handful of unscrupulous companies were secretly using cheap cottonseed oil to cut expensive olive oil, so some consumers considered it an adulterant. Others have associated cottonseed oil with soap or its emerging industrial uses in dyes, tar and explosives. Still others read alarming headlines about how the cottonseed meal contained a toxic compound, although the cottonseed oil itself did not contain any of this. Rather than insisting on its only problematic ingredient, Crisco merchants kept the focus on the consumer trained in brand reliability and the purity of the modern food processing plant. Crisco flew off the shelves. Unlike lard, Crisco had a neutral flavor. Unlike butter, Crisco could last for years on the shelf. Unlike olive oil, it had a high smoke temperature for frying. At the same time, as Crisco was the only solid fat made entirely from plants, it was enjoyed by Jewish consumers who followed dietary restrictions that prohibited mixing meat and dairy products in a single meal. In just five years, Americans were buying more than 60 million cans of Crisco, the equivalent of three cans for each family in the country. In a generation, lard has gone from being an important part of the American diet to becoming an old-fashioned ingredient. Trust the brand, not the ingredients Today, Crisco has replaced cottonseed oil with palm, soy and canola oils. But cotton oil is still one of the most consumed edible oils in the country. It is a routine ingredient in processed foods and is common in restaurant fryers. Crisco would never have become a steamroller without its aggressive advertising campaigns that emphasized the purity and modernity of manufacturing production and the reliability of the Crisco name. In the wake of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act – which made adulteration or mislabeling of food products illegal and increased consumer confidence – Crisco helped to convince Americans that they did not need to understand the ingredients of processed foods, provided that these foods came from a trusted brand. In the decades following the launch of Crisco, other companies followed suit, launching products like Spam, Cheetos and Froot Loops with little or no reference to their ingredients. Since labeling of ingredients was mandatory in the United States in the late 1960s, multisyllabic ingredients in many highly processed foods may have confused consumers. But for the most part, they continued to eat. So, if you don’t find it strange to eat foods whose ingredients you don’t know or understand, you should partly thank Crisco. [ You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors. You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter. ]This article was republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. Read more: * A reaction against “mixed” foods led to the end of a classic American dish * How Spam became one of the most iconic American brands of all time * The origins of the modern artisanal cocktail movement in the Prohibition era Helen Zoe Veit, does not work for, consult, own shares or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article and has not disclosed any relevant affiliations other than her academic appointment.