Cisco Helps

[vintagekitchen]

And now for the funny part..

Now, to be fair, Miss Viola is one of the sweetest women I have ever met, and was a grand teacher. (she taught 3 generations of my family. My grandfather in the one room schoolhouse, my father and mother in the new school the county built in the early 60's, and myself and my brother in the same school.)

Unfortunately Miss Viola has a mean streak when it comes to her daughter in law. The 2 women HATE each other. (a family trait. Said daughter in law hates my friend, her daughter in law. The only thing that makes any of those women speak to each other is the whole, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" deal). Since Miss Viola's son and daughter in law moved into the back wing of the house to help care for her in her old age, she has found a new way to torment her daughter in law.

It turns out her daughter in law is truly OCD, and must keep the house spotless at all times to keep her sanity. So, after her nightly grease down, Miss Viola now skips the flannel slippers, and carefully pitter pats down the hallway and into the kitchen, leaving greasy little footprints as she goes (wood floors), before making herself a midnight snack which "somehow" always requires she touch every cabinet handle, fridge handle, stove knob, etc in the kitchen. She then pops on her slippers and heads off to bed, lol. Never underestimate a mother in law.

 

[westingman123]

Oh, Lord!

THAT, my friend, is truly funny. My great-grandma, always a hale and hearty type, took to her bed whenever her daughter-in-law came to visit. It was a source of a lot of humor in our family. She was never sick a day in her life before that unfortunate marriage!

I haven't heard the term "mean streak" in a long time. It was quite popular when I was young. You made my day.

 

[ronhic]

My aunt was a great user of Copha....basically a coconut based product that was as bad for you as you could possibly imagine....

It does, however, make awesome chips and chocolate crackles are not to be sneezed at either!

Copha - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[launderess]

Crisco vs Cold/Vanishing Creams

Cold and vanishing creams have been around for ages. The difference between them and Criso is the former are either water in oil or oil in water emulsions, where as the latter is simply semi-solid fat.

While Crisco or other shortenings do not provide moisture for skin they can help keep water in by forming a barrier to evaporation. When applied after all over bathing or washing of a body part to damp skin the water in essence is "trapped" thus is lost more slowly which creates hydration.

All oil based moisturisers work upon he same principle the difference lies in that the more heavy creams can form an almost occlusive barrier. This works however both ways as it not only helps keep whatever is below in (water, medications, etc...),but will prevent to an extent things from getting through.

Water rolls off a duck's back and indeed all mammals that spend a great part of their lives in or under water because of the high concentration of oils in their fur/feathers.

 

[launderess]

Old Version of Crisco

Fate was sealed when NYC imposed a transfat ban for certain restaurants and fast food places.It was followed by several other large cities and lauded by public health experts who long have wailed over trans-fats.

P&G did itself no favours when it came out they knew from internal research for decades that trans-fats are harmful to humans.

 

[angus]

To quote the maid who worked for Miss Jolene - "She's real mean - mean for sport".

Regarding Crisco - I understand why people use it, but it doesn't make anything tasty. This may be heresy, but I simply will not eat any piecrust or frosting made with Crisco. Digestible, my foot. It gives me horrible indigestion and leaves an undissolvable coating in my mouth that I literally have to brush away immediately. And why would anyone make "buttercream" cake frosting with Crisco anyway as most supermarket and commercial bakeries do? Yes it is more "stable" and less heat sensitive than butter, but piecrust and frosting should be all about flavor. And being me, I have a friend who fancies himself the best cook in the world and has tried repeatedly to trip me up insisting that his piecrusts are not made with Crisco and uses canned frosting on all his cakes telling me there is no difference. Of course it isn't any worse than one of my friends that eats canned frosting with a spoon...

Now baking or frying with real leaf lard is unsurpassed for flaky and flavorful piecrust and beautifully fried foods. Sadly the white processed blocks of Armour or whatever brand sold in the supermarkets bears no resemblance to the real stuff. One can sometimes find fresh lard at a good Italian butcher and the real thing is amazing. It is not quite solid and is creamy/transluscent in color.

There is a website (Flying Pig Farms) where I believe you can find real leaf lard, but am not sure if it is already rendered or if you have to do it yourself. My mother used to tell how her mother rendered her own lard over a wood fire in the backyard of their Brooklyn apartment house because she didn't want the house to reek. One of the privileges of being the janitress, I guess.

 

[launderess]

Real Lard

Is often hard to find as a virgin at a prison rodeo. Unless one owns a farm and or knows someone who does the stuff just isn't easily found. Hence persons go with Crisco type shortening or (god forbid)the Armour lard.

 

[perc-o-prince]

I remember reading an article in Cook's Illustrated about lard and the difference between supermarket lards and leaf lard. The former gave a funny sour or "off" taste to crusts while leaf lard gave a much more desirable rich taste. They got theirs from Dietrich's in PA, but that issue was a few years old. I have no idea if they still do mail order. Next time we go to Kutztown and Adamstown, I'll have to try to get there earlier (we usually get to that area after 9-10 PM) and check them out since they're at the same exit off of I-78 that we generally take. I remember seeing the sign but never went there!

Chuck

Welcome to Dietrich's Meats and Country Store - Quality Fresh and Smoked Meats and Pennsylvania Dutch Specialties

Dietrich's Meats and Country Store

www.dietrichsmeats.com

 

[foraloysius]

Angus

You are right! No taste at all. I made a pie crust from 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of Crisco and a pinch of salt. I used the crust for a savoury pie, a leak pie with lots of leak, onions, smoked chicken, cheese, cream and eggs. Normally I make this pie with a crust made with butter. The result was not very satisfying. I had already a clue when I was not able to roll out the dough but had to spread it over the form. I baked it for the same time as usual, but the crust was rather crumbly instead of in one piece. And it didn't turn a nie brown color either. Should I have baked it longer than a crust made with butter?

 

[foraloysius]

I wasn't able to get a slice in one piece out of the form. It fell apart. I had to cover it up with lots of parsley to make it look tasty. Perhaps I'm going to try once to make a crust with half butter and half Crisco, but I think I will be back to all butter. More taste and better crust.

 

[lordkenmore]

No taste at all.

Crisco has a butter flavor Crisco! Think of the rich butter flavor that will impart to your pie crust.

Now we pause a moment to let Crisco haters shudder.

Still pausing.

Still pausing.

 

[foraloysius]

I don't hate it. Yet... lol!

It's just that I had never used it and have problems understanding how it works in a dough. I have more experience with butter than this "newfangled stuff". lol

 

[launderess]

Crisco/Shortening vs Butter For Doughs

As with many things related to baking/cooking a wide range of opinions regarding various shortenings and their uses in dough.

Thing to remember about Crisco type shortenings is they lack water, whereas butter contains a good bit. The moisture in butter is what becomes trapped in doughs and contributes to their texture including that wonderful flaky/crumb most of us love.

Depending upon what sort of dough (sweet or savory) many bakers will use various ratios of Crisco/shortening to butter or lard, or simply the same of lard and butter.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/680152

 

[launderess]

Here Is A Pie Dough Recipe From James Beard

That uses both butter and shortening. Notice it also requires a bit of ice water as well.

http://inasouthernkitchen.com/2011/07/mitchell-daviss-foolproof-pie-dough/

 

[foraloysius]

Thank you very much Launderess for those links. I noticed a message on the forum of the first link in which a crust from Julia Child was mentioned. It's in her book "Baking with Julia". Fortunately I have the book.

5 1/4 cups of pastry flour or all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon of kosher salt
1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 3/4 cups (11 ounces) solid vegetable shortening, chilled
1 cup ice water

Make a dough with the ingredients and use as much water as necessary. How to do this precisely is ofcourse in the book.

 

[launderess]

Water And Doughs

Is never really precise from kitchen to kicthen. Hydration of the dough depends upon many factors such as flour, room temperature, humidity and so forth.

Flour can vary from region to region, brand to brand even within the same country. For instance in the United States southern housewives, bakers and anyone else who bakes swear by White Lily flour. It is the brand you'll most often see in recipes and so on. However the stuff isn't easily found if at all in the North, Northeast or West. So when people try southern recipes calling for White Lily and subsitute whatever they have locally, the results aren't the same.

 

[hunter]

White Lily is different now anyway.

White Lily was bought by someone else and is now made in the midwest, not from southern soft wheat.

So it's different, alas.

 

[norgeway]

If you can get it!!!

Yeltons Best flour is still made from soft red wheat, as is Virginias Best, both make great biscuits, but for pie crust they are too soft, making it very hard to handle, I use Gold Medal for pastry.

 

[launderess]

White Lily Brand Flour Was Sold To Smucker's

Who claim the product has not changed and is still the same type of flour loved by Southern cooks/bakers for generations. However there is quite a range of opinions on that matter.

The original White Lily flour mill has been shut down and redeveloped into housing.

Dust-up over Southern flour has Smucker in a jam

Gus Chan/The Plain DealerWhite Lily is the only kind of flour Gloria Carruthers sells at the Old Country Smokehouse, a one-room shop on Cleveland's East Side that also offers country hams, sweet potato pie and other Southern favorites. "White Lily...

blog.cleveland.com

 

[hunter]

I wish they'd sell the stuff outside the southeast.

I got some awesome self raising stuff in Oklahoma when I was there a few weeks ago, but White Lily is ONLY available in the southeast.

Sorry, the price of flour is too expensive now to pay for flour AND shipping!