BY SUSHAMA GOKHALE
Reprinted from Wise Traditions magazine.
The FDA is creeping toward banning trans-fats, or what are technically called partially hydrogenated fats. I saw this article in Wise Traditions magazine and asked the author if we could reprint it — thanks for that permission, Sushama. I think you’ll love this work of journalistic art. — efc
I found what must be the first Crisco cookbook ever made at an estate sale. I am still hooting with laughter — or maybe crying in pain — at the allusions, double entendres, the claims of Crisco’s greatness, the extreme uncoolness of the old-fashioned fats.
It’s interesting to see that the seeds of our current health tragedy were sown so close to a century ago, with impeccable marketing by Procter & Gamble, the producer of this popular and inexpensive product. The advent of Crisco on the shelves and pantries across America kicked off what is probably the era of the greatest chronic degeneration in human health!
The cookbook is called A Calendar of Dinners, by Marion Harris Neil, and was first published in 1913. The retail price of this twenty-second edition, published in 1922: fifty cents. The book is beautifully illustrated, with sentimental, old- style photos of curvy, turn-of-the-century housewives rolling out pastry dough made with Crisco.
Marion Harris Neil was a prolific cookbook writer. In addition to A Calendar of Dinners and its sequel The Crisco Cookbook, she wrote Candies and Bonbons and How to Make Them, Canning, Preserving and Pickling, Economical Cookery and Favorite Recipes Cook Book. And she wrote for other companies besides Procter and & Gamble, creating such titles-for-hire as Cox’s Manual of Gelatine Cookery, The Ryzon Baking Book (for foods using Ryzon baking powder), Delicious Recipes Made with Mueller’s Products and 43 Delicious Ways of Serving McMenamin’s Crab Meat.