"Crisco" news and stories

Have you ever dreamed of having a perfect backyard? One with gorgeous stone paths, an elegant seating area and of course, an envy-worthy grilling station? Well, Crisco is sponsoring a contest in which they're inviting home grillmasters to share their favorite recipe for a chance to win a backyard makeover. The winner will also be one of the first inductees into the new Grilling Hall of Fame.

The deadline for this contest is rapidly approaching - all recipes must be submitted no later than December 15, 2008 (sorry about the late notice, we only just learned of the contest). You can submit your recipe, image of recipe and a 250 (or less) word essay, explaining why your recipe is a winner here.

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I don't know about you, but I dread measuring sticky ingredients. Here are a few tips on making measuring less dreadful.

Convenience is, well, convenient, but it comes at a hefty price. Upscale markets like Whole Foods and Metropolitan Market in Seattle that provide prepared foods are charging an arm and a leg, but consumers don't seem to mind.

Crisco has gone the way of trans-fat free. Seattle Times provides answers to common questions about trans fats and recipes using the delicious, and now healthier, stuff: Classic Buttermilk Biscuits, Basic Pie Pastry, Apple Crumb Pie, and Currant Scones.

Out on the restaurant scene, everybody's favorite Chinese restaurant Doong Kong Lau heads to Central America and turns into El Salvadorean Mi Chalateca II.

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.