Trans-fat free Crisco

by Nicole Weston, Posted Dec 12th 2006 @ 3:04PM

When I read the article in the New York Times where a chef tested Crisco, coconut oil and other fats for frying and baking, I was very surprised to hear that Crisco came out on top in just about every test. I'm familiar with how shortening works, so it wasn't the performance that surprised me, rather it was the fact that there was not a crowd of foodies (or at least readers of Gourmet magazine) outside the test kitchen complaining that an all-shortening tarte tatin, which usually has a very buttery puff-pastry base, beat out butter. Butter unquestionably tastes better, especially in such a simple dish, and the only way to really screw it up is if you have a lot of difficulty working with pastry in general. To get a "firm and crumbly" crust with butter, it sounds like the testing chef seriously overworked his dough.

But to get back to the main point, the thing that was really surprising was not the tarte tatin result, but the fact that they didn't consider testing trans-fat free Crisco in addition to regular Crisco. Surely a taste test that pitted this against an alternative with trans-fats would have been more useful to professional and non-professional chefs alike! Crisco Zero has been on the market for about a year and a half now. It's not quite as widely available as regular Crisco, but it can usually be found at regular grocery stores. It offers the same performance - resulting, for example, in a flaky pie crust - but does not have any trans fats per serving. I've used it before with good results and it seems like a potential alternative for chefs trying to reconfigure their recipes to exclude trans-fats.

Filed Under: Raves & Reviews, Stores & Shopping, Health & Medical, New Products
Tags: butter, crisco, crizco zero, CrizcoZero, fat, fats, pastry, pie crust, stores-and-shopping, test, trans fats, transfats

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

12-12-2006 @3:27PM Harlan said... Interesting, their ingredients list soybean oil, sunflower oil, and fully hydrogenated (aka, fully saturated) palm oil. In other words, they're taking palm oil, which is already 50% saturated, and making it fully saturated. That apparently lets them mix relatively small amounts of the saturated palm oil with unsaturated oils (soybean and sunflower) and have the result be solid at room temperature. At least, that's my guess...

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12-12-2006 @5:14PM Alex said... OK looks like I have to accept that tarte tatin americaine is different from the French/European one. Julia Child uses a pate brisee sucree, Larousse refers to it as a basic shortcrust, and the French wikipedia says pate sablee: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarte_Tatin.

Now cooking palmiers with something other than butter I would have liked to see!!!
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12-12-2006 @8:30PM Laura said... Personally, I was really dissappointed baking with the non-trans-fat crisco. For me it cooks up really differently from normal crisco and not well at all. I found the texture of pie crusts mealy and strange; quick breads were gummy and cookies didn't brown up right.

I won't use it again. But normal crisco is off the menu, too, thanks to the transfats -- I've converted to all butter in my recipes.
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12-15-2006 @1:07AM Berkana said... If anyone is interested in a "kitchen hacker" trick for making flaky crusts, I came up with a cheater's shortcut.

http://dietarydiaries.blogspot.com/2006/04/secrets-to-flaky-pie-crusts-are.html
http://dietarydiaries.blogspot.com/2005/09/add-one-more-dessert-to-menu.html
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12-15-2006 @1:07AM Berkana said... Oh, and my flaky crust method doesn't use any hydrogenated oils or trans fats. It uses only real butter, flour, salt, and water + egg.
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12-13-2006 @1:05AM Eric said... Weasel words work wonders. Crisco in the green can has zero grams of trans fat per serving. You would think this would be synonymous with "lacks trans fat completely", much in the way you would hope there's no insects in your flour. The thing is, it's more like the government has said that flour is insect-free if there are no *whole* insects in a given scoop. A half an insect doesn't count. In trans-fat-land, you can round *down* to the nearest half-gram per serving. .49 grams trans = 0 grams trans per serving (this is the same logic that makes PAM, essentially 100% soybean oil, fat-free).

If you fully hydrogenate fats, you get waxes. Waxes don't bake all that well, but the more you hydrogenate (and the higher pressures you do it at), the less trans, by percentage, is formed. So blend juuuuuust enough of just waxy enough of stuff with the polyunsaturates to stay under .49 grams trans- per serving, et voila, you are trans-fat-free in the eyes of the FDA if not in the eyes of God. It's weasel-y.

The Spectrum non-hydrogenated shortening isn't awful. What I don't understand is how their test cook couldn't get great fries with beef tallow, lard, canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil (non-hydrogenated) or any of a dozen other oils. The problem isn't that they fry poorly, it's that they don't last as long in the fry vat, which makes it a money issue.

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12-13-2006 @2:46AM JerzeeTomato said... The best pie dough is half butter/half crisco. My grandmother said it and I prove it every year. I understand the fat thing, but if you indulge in one slice of pie how much crust do you really get? I am sure you little math majors will get me the nutritional facts. My grandmother died when she was 94 of natural causes. She made her pies with both, I make my pies with both. If you only eat pie per se for special occasions/rare ocassions you do not need to freak out over the crisco.
I am not speaking about tartins or galettes or crostadas just good old american pies. Pumpkin, apple, peach.... Pies. Because I only bake pies for holidays and when summer fruits and fall apples are plentiful I am not worried about the trans fats. Sometimes you have to just do what works well. Crisco and butter makes amazing pie crusts.
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12-13-2006 @1:41PM Stephanie said... I have also had mixed sucess with the trans-fat-free crisco. I tried it in some lemon thin ice box cookies and they just never got firm enough to cut. The cookies also were not a crisp as I would like. I am in a quandry on the cookie front now-- I use butter for most, but my younger son is allergic to milk, so I would like a trans-fat-free, milk free alternative that works well in cookies. Seems like I may have to go with lard, but I have a hard time believing that is better for us than regular crisco. I guess cookies aren't supposed to be good for you anyway....
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1-25-2007 @10:37AM Diana said... Bad News! Fully Hydrogenated Oil, in the new Crisco, could be even worse than trans fat. These oils are called "interesterified" fats. They not only lower HDL, (good cholestrol), but they raise blood sugar! Very dangerous. You can find the article about this on scientificamerican.com.
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