posted
So my friend and I were driving in the car with her two boys yesterday. We were regaling them with tales of our own school days back in the 60s, and the subject of cafeteria food comes up. I happened to mention that the general belief at my school was that the cooks made "whipped cream" for the desserts out of whipped, sweetened Crisco.
While it is a great story for the "ewwwww!" factor, I have no idea if it is actually true. We kids all knew that the little white piece of fluff on top of that pudding cup was not real whipped cream, yet this was back in the days when the cooks actually did prepare all the ingredients for the cafeteria meals, (rather than the food being delivered ready made), so the lunch ladies made that dessert topping out of something.
Has anyone else heard this particular tale from their own school daze, and do you know if it is true? Or were we merely spreading the usual ugly rumors about school cafeteria food?
Horse "The peanut butter cornflake cookies were the real deal!" Chestnut
Posts: 1651 | From: Columbus, Ohio | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
I don't know about "whipped cream" but Crisco can certainly be used to make icing. It is shortening, which is a main ingredient in many icings.
-------------------- "My name is the symbol for my identity and must not be lost." Motto of the Lucy Stone League. Posts: 1815 | From: Pennsylvania | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
I do remember years ago (70s) seeing a TV show about the making of Twinkies. The cream filling was suppose to be made from whipped lard and surgar.
Posts: 1152 | From: Somewere | Registered: Oct 2001
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kenny2424
The Red and the Green Stamps
posted
I remember seeing Steve Carell eating Crisco like ice cream on The Daily Show A long while back.
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Soviet Kitsch
The Red and the Green Stamps
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I may be completely off base with this, but I almost recall seeing whipped crisco (unsweetened, alas) for sale somewhere.
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The frosting my mother-in-law uses to top her world-famous red velvet cake consists of a small amount of cooked flour-and-milk, into which you whip liberal quantities of shortening and granulated sugar (and a bit of vanilla). Crisco is definitely the primary ingredient. the frosting is surprisingly tasty, though not something you'd want to eat out of the bowl.
Posts: 207 | From: Alabama | Registered: Apr 2004
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Sara at home
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
Whipped Crisco, sugar and some milk is basically "butter" icing. Or the center for Whoopie pies or Oreos.
Not having eaten at your school, I don't know what they were putting on top of their desserts but there was/is a commonly used dried product that you added milk to and whipped, making a Cool Whip type topping. The home version is called Dream Whip
-------------------- Assume that all my posts will be edited at least once. Dyslexic -- can't spell, can't type, can't proofread. Posts: 8317 | From: Reading, PA | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Lexi: Is crisco lard? We don't have it over here.
Crisco is a brand name for shortening, which is a sort of solid vegetable oil. It can be used in many recipes where lard is called for, and can also be substituted for butter in some recipes.
posted
I have a cookboook published in 1913 to promote Crisco when it was first introduced. It's touted as an alternative to both lard and butter (oils weren't much used in cooking in the US then) so includes recipes that now sound pretty awful. Mayonnaise made with melted Crisco. Brussels Sprouts with Crisco, vegetables with cream sauces made with Crisco instead of butter.
The cake chapter has a frosting recipe that use Crisco as the only fat. It calls for Crisco, sugar, melted chocolate, coffeee, salt & vanilla, for instance. The Crisco is "kneaded" into the sugar.
-------------------- The plural of "anecdote" is not "data." Posts: 4255 | From: Sacramento, CA | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Heck my mother STILL makes frosting for cakes out of Crisco. Crisco, confectionary sugar and milk. What are you supposed to make frosting out of?
When she makes whoopie pies (black moons) she makes the same frosting for the filling but adds marshmallow fluff to it.
-------------------- "That would be really dangerous, you know. Indiscriminately extricating someone from the petrified corpse of a supernatural creature." - My Husband Posts: 4308 | From: Massachusetts | Registered: Jun 2003
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quote:When she makes whoopie pies (black moons) she makes the same frosting for the filling but adds marshmallow fluff to it.
New here, had to say something about this...
If 'black moons' are what I think they are, they're one of those things I never expected people to make at home. You buy them in a box and pack one in your lunch each day, like Twinkies.
I was looking at an old Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, and thinking that there was a lot of stuff in it that people just don't make at home anymore... there's a whole section on homemade candy, for example. People have so little time, and storebought candy is so cheap, that making candy feels like a very old-fashioned thing to do.
Posts: 49 | From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Whoopie Pies AKA Black Moons are basically two round pieces of chocolate cake made into a sort of a sandwich with cream filling on the inside. My mother doesn't make them often, just on special occasions when her work is having some sort of party, or when we have cookouts she'll make them for dessert. They're pretty simple actually. You just bake up a chocolate cake mix (you could make the cake from scratch too, but she usually uses a mix), drop spoonfulls of batter onto a cookie sheet, bake them up until they make little round cake blobs, then you mix up the filling (for my mom it's confectionary sugar, crisco, marshmallow fluff and milk) then you spread on the filling, and put two blobs together to make a sandwich.
You can get similar snack cakes premade, but I've never seen anything sold that is exactly like a whoopie pie.
-------------------- "That would be really dangerous, you know. Indiscriminately extricating someone from the petrified corpse of a supernatural creature." - My Husband Posts: 4308 | From: Massachusetts | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
Oooh, syllavus, you should go to Pittsburgh and visit some of the convenience stores there. They've got tons of whoopie pies, just as you described. I used to get them every once in a while.
-------------------- 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. That is when the world will end. Posts: 7158 | From: D.C. | Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
I don’t think I could ever bring myself round to eating something called a “whoopie pie” especially as they seem to be something that actually visually resembles a cow pat as well as sounding like one.
-------------------- The Sqizzle formally known as Lexi Posts: 3231 | From: Nottingham, UK | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
See, I can't hear "whoopie pie" without thinking of The Dating Game's definition of "whoopie." I don't want to know the ingredients of that pie.
posted
The other thing is, frosting made from vegetable shortening is really no different than Cool-Whip or any of the other 'edible oil products' masquerading as whipped cream.
Posts: 49 | From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
when i worked at the erotic bakery we would make this real dense, industrial-strength buttercream frosting that was mostly just shortening, sugar, and dye. the stuff never went bad. when we went to use it sometimes we'd whip a bit of it up with some real butter and a fresh dose of sugar. when Crisco released a trans-fat free version of its product, we did a lot of testing and experimenting with it. it made a crappy pie crust but one guy loved to smear it on a saltine cracker and then sprinkle it with sea salt and pepper...
-------------------- "Look at the size of Tifa's breasts! They're destroying our childrens future!" Posts: 92 | From: San Francisco | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Cosmo: when i worked at the erotic bakery...
I bet THAT looks good on a resume!
-------------------- Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket? Posts: 782 | From: Arlington, TX | Registered: Jul 2005
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Sara at home
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
quote:Originally posted by Buzzkiller: See, I can't hear "whoopie pie" without thinking of The Dating Game's definition of "whoopie." I don't want to know the ingredients of that pie.
Not a pie. Just two cookie shaped cakes with "cream" in the middle. Look at the upper left corner of this page. And googling "whoopie pie" will get you tons of recipes.
-------------------- Assume that all my posts will be edited at least once. Dyslexic -- can't spell, can't type, can't proofread. Posts: 8317 | From: Reading, PA | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Cosmo: when i worked at the erotic bakery...
I bet THAT looks good on a resume!
Well when it says Grateful Bread Specialty Catering - Lead baker it does. I just don't talk about the specialty part...
-------------------- "Look at the size of Tifa's breasts! They're destroying our childrens future!" Posts: 92 | From: San Francisco | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Indefatigable: The other thing is, frosting made from vegetable shortening is really no different than Cool-Whip or any of the other 'edible oil products' masquerading as whipped cream.
Henceforth 'Whipped Topping' as opposed to 'Whipped Cream'
-------------------- "Look at the size of Tifa's breasts! They're destroying our childrens future!" Posts: 92 | From: San Francisco | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Cosmo: Henceforth 'Whipped Topping' as opposed to 'Whipped Cream'
Exactly. I was just wondering why people are so shocked to hear about Crisco in frosting. It's not that gross, especially to people who eat Cool-Whip and Twinkies.
.. I don't mean Cool-Whip and Twinkies at the same time. Although that might not be too bad.
This conversation is giving me a serious junk-food jones.
Posts: 49 | From: Toronto | Registered: Aug 2005
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