Crisco

[Hinnerk]

OK, so Crisco is listed as an ingredient in a number of black powder lube formulae but Crisco made today is not the same composition as the stuff my grandmother used to bake with (that was over 45 years ago, BTW). Have the changes had any practical effects on it's use in bullet lube?

[Outpost75]

I don't think new vs. old Crisco makes any difference, as you adjust the amount of beeswax blended in to get the final consistency that you want. You can use hog lard or bear grease the same way. I like a 50-50 mixture, equal parts by melted volume.

[Hinnerk]

I figured not ... else I would have expected someone to have posted something about it.

Thanks

[country gent]

While the packaging has changed over the years You might be surprised how close the recipes have stayed over the years. I worked in the food industry for years, while there were different spice packs for different regions for some soups the actual recipe changed very little. Chilli was one.

[Char-Gar]

My wife hates the taste and smell of butter and has cooked with Crisco for well over 50 years. She says the stuff has not changed. She can smell like a bloodhound, so I don't doubt her word on such things. I also try and not cross a redheaded woman. I am not afraid of them, just cautious.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

BUTTER! One of our great blessings!

[Char-Gar]

BUTTER! One of our great blessings!

I agree completly! She is the only person I have ever known that hated the stuff. It is fun to watch her at a restraunt asking if the dish was prepared with butter. If the answer is yes, she asked it be prepared with olive oil. Once the chef came out and protested saying that "butter was the soul of the dish". She stuck to her guns, and got it with olive oil, but the chef was not a happy man.

[metricmonkeywrench]

stuck my finger in the tub at home, still tastes the same...

[Chill Wills]

OK, so Crisco is listed as an ingredient in a number of black powder lube formulae but Crisco made today is not the same composition as the stuff my grandmother used to bake with (that was over 45 years ago, BTW).

I think it is made of hydrogenated vegetable oil. What was it made of before?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I've read this thread a few times since it was posted yesterday.
I know most products that have been on the market for 100 years or so have changed, due to prices of raw ingredients and such.

Crisco started as being made entirely of cottonseed oil in 1911.
As of 2012, Crisco now consists of a blend of soybean oil, fully hydrogenated palm oil, and partially hydrogenated palm and soybean oils.

Info from WIKI, but they don't mention if there were any changes away from cottonseed oil before 2012.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisco

[Hinnerk]

Yeah, they have made some changes to the composition and to reduce the trans-fat content. Reportedly the modern stuff is not as good for getting perfectly flaky pie crusts as in days gone by, but I don't know from experience. I don't cook with it and I can't recall when my parents last used it. I DO recall that we never had butter at home except at Christmas time; always margarine. Yuck!! But then, my parents used to use lard on their sandwiches when they were kids.

[Outpost75]

Lard sandwiches with salt & pepper were a Depression staple and in England during WW2 rationing.

Also on Saltine crackers or pilot biscuit if you didn't have bread.

Still very popular in among the Alaska indigenous peoples and First Nations of Canada.

Also seen it spread on tortillas and seasoned with Chulula or Two Flaming Arrows hot sauce.

[Char-Gar]

Lard sandwiches with salt & pepper were a Depression staple and in England during WW2 rationing.

Also on Saltine crackers or pilot biscuit if you didn't have bread.

Still very popular in among the Alaska indigenous peoples and First Nations of Canada.

Also seen it spread on tortillas and seasoned with Chulula or Two Flaming Arrows hot sauce.

In my part of the word manteca/lard is still a cooking staple that is bought by the gallon bucket. Tex-Mex food doesn't taste right without it. The food is delicious, but diabetes is rampant down here. I live in the land of the one legged Mexican.

As Emeril Lagasse used to say: "Pork fat rules"

[Outpost75]

In my part of the word manteca/lard is still a cooking staple that is bought by the gallon bucket. Tex-Mex food doesn't taste right without it. The food is delicious, but diabetes is rampant down here. I live in the land of the one legged Mexican.

As Emeril Lagasse used to say: "Pork fat rules"

I take it you can buy Two Flaming Arrows in your local market and don't have to get it on Amazon?

[greenjoytj]

I hope that if I breathe BP gun smoke I don’t absorb a lot of transfats, that would be bad for my cholesterol count.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

A short Crisco story. You may recall that years ago, and for many years, the Crisco cans had a picture of delicious looking food on the label. Two that come to mind are fried chicken and cherry pie.

Well, back in the early '60s I was stationed in Germany, where it snows and gets quite cold in the winter, especially if you have to go out on maneuvers and live in the stuff for two or three weeks at a time. Before leaving the garrison on such exercises the PX would just about sell out of things like candy bars and novelty foods, as the G.I.s knew that a steady diet of C rations awaited them. Also, these sugary foods seemed to generate a little warmth and energy. The NCOs who were married got to do their shopping at the Commissary, and had more and better options for extras.

One summer several of us junior NCOs were detailed to report to the Commissary for an inventory. This was something we knew absolutely nothing about, but it proved easy enough. The Commissary employees had already counted the number of any given item on the shelves and taped a tally sheet to the shelf in front of the item. All we had to do was recount the various items, and verify their count by initialing the sheet. I got to chatting with the Commissary manager and asked him if he had any interesting stories to tell.

He related that they used to stock whole canned chickens that were pre-cooked. Some NCOs would buy them and take them out to the field where they would heat the entire unopened can in what is known as a mermite can. For those without experience in the military, these are nothing more than a standard metal garbage can with an immersion heater that heats the can full of water. They are often used for washing and sanitizing chow trays and mess kits after use -- if that is even done anymore, what with all the MREs, etc. So these married NCOs that had Commissary privileges were living a better life than the ordinary G.I.s in the miserable, snowy conditions.

Lots of things were different then, and the draft was a fact of life. Uncle Sam only got about half the enlistees he needed to maintain a large Army, so guys of all persuasions and levels of education were drafted, including a couple I knew that had B.A. degrees, and some that were quite illiterate and barely able to write their name. Some of these latter types found the Army to be something they were well suited for, and they stayed in and acquired some rank just by longevity and staying out of trouble.

Along comes one of the really big annual winter exercises when it's cold, snowy, icy, and everyone knows their life will be miserable for the next three weeks. Into the Commissary comes a SSgt. in full field gear, and he asks the manager where the canned chickens are located. The manager replied that they no longer carried the canned chickens. The SSgt. said that he knew that they did carry them, that he had just been in the store a few days ago and had seen them on the shelf. He hustled back into the store and reappeared at the checkout register, saying that he'd found one, that there was a whole shelf full of them, and that the manager should become more familiar with what the Commissary carried in stock.

The manager said that he didn't have the heart to tell the guy that he had a can of Crisco with a fried chicken on the label.

Can you imagine the look on the SSgt.'s face when he was out in the field up to his posterior in snow and opened his heated can to find it full of liquid grease?

[mule1]

Do you know what temp. it melts at? Can you use it for a cartridge boolit load, or will it melt into the powder?

[RogerDat]

Do you know what temp. it melts at? Can you use it for a cartridge boolit load, or will it melt into the powder?

Some people use Crisco/Lard smeared as is for a black powder lube. I think more mix it at about 50/50 with bees wax. More bees wax yields a stiffer lube that doesn't run at warmer temperatures. Less wax yields a softer lube better suited to cold weather. So I suppose one could make a stiffer version of the 50/50 mix as a cartridge lube and it would work to at least some extent. Maybe for the calibers that were originally black powder cartridges like 45 colt or .38 special.

I think I have seen Crisco, lard, or tallow as an ingredient in home made bullet lubes that are intended for cartridges. Along with other ingredients used to make a stiffer and more complex lube. Not something I have done, just read about the recipes and process for making them.

I also recall there was some debate on their being salted and unsalted Crisco but in looking at the ingredients on the can I bought no salt was listed. I can't say that all varieties are without added salt but the cans I purchased were. The concern was that the salt would increase the potential for corrosion.

[Winger Ed.]

[QUOTE=Der GebirgsjagerThe manager said that he didn't have the heart to tell the guy that he had a can of Crisco with a fried chicken on the label.[/QUOTE]

That is funny.
It would have been a real shock if he'd grabbed several of them for his buddies.

[Froogal]

Crisco is for pie crust. LARD is for bullet lube, and yes, you can still buy lard. Look in the baking aisle of your favorite grocery store.