The hydrogenated fat that replaced lard in Black Southern kitchens from the 1930s through the 2000s. Used in biscuits, pie crust, and fried chicken. The industrial shortening revolution.
Procter & Gamble's marketing campaign for Crisco specifically targeted Black Southern homemakers — positioning the product as cleaner, more modern, and more American than lard. It worked. By the 1940s, Crisco had become the standard shortening in Black Southern kitchens, and the Blue can became a kitchen fixture as reliable as the cast iron skillet. It is still present in Black kitchens today — on counters, in cupboards, in the specific muscle memory of grandmothers who learned to make biscuits with it.
The original Crisco formula (1911-2007) contained partially hydrogenated vegetable oil producing industrial trans fatty acids — the most atherogenic dietary fat identified in clinical research, associated with a dose-dependent increase in LDL cholesterol, decrease in HDL cholesterol, systemic inflammation, and cardiovascular disease risk at quantities as small as 2-3g per day. The FDA ordered the removal of partially hydrogenated oils from the food supply in 2015 (effective 2018). Modern Crisco uses fully hydrogenated palm oil and soybean oil — no longer high in trans fats, but now 25% saturated fat with the same cardiovascular conversation as lard, without lard's micronutrient content. Black Americans consumed the original high-trans-fat Crisco at high rates for decades while simultaneously carrying disproportionate cardiovascular disease burden. That timeline is not coincidental. It is a public health history.
Modern Crisco can be used in biscuits and pie crust with results comparable to the original — it produces a slightly denser biscuit than leaf lard but a more tender crumb than butter. For frying, Crisco has a smoke point of approximately 360°F — slightly lower than lard. The functional cooking results are equivalent. The nutrition portrait has shifted with reformulation but remains a high-saturated-fat product without the natural fat-soluble vitamins of pastured lard.
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