I just did a quick check online. The Crisco sticks at my grocery store are $6.49 (20 ounces). The tubs are $4.99 (16 ounces) and $10.49 (48 ounces).

I looked at the cans at an employee-owned grocery store yesterday that usually has the best prices. They were $4.20. Sticks were under $5.

It seems like a lot because it's been a long time since you had to buy any.

I don't use much Crisco any more since finding a wonderful oil based pie crust that is much healthier, but when I did used to buy it, it aways went rancid between uses. So I started buying the sticks and storing them in the freezer. I don't worry about how long they stay in the freezer; it doesn't seem to affect the quality and there's not much to go wrong.

It must be old Crisco day. I noticed my mom was throwing out a couple blocks, asked her about it and she said they expired four years ago so she thought it was time!

I haven’t used Crisco to make cookies…..ever. Do you use it instead of butter? I do keep some on hand for things that I want to be flaky but that is not a cookie criterion, in my experience.

I use a recipe for peanut butter cookies my aunt gave me long time ago. It calls for 1/4 cup of shortening and 1/4 cup of butter.

I only use butter for baking, except for the baking I do for work as one of the ladies has a lactose intolerance. Last Christmas I made batches of my annual Christmas cookies with a lactose free margrine and the only member of the group who had had the normal butter cookies the year before said she could taste the difference.

Yes, Crisco is one of the items whose price has gone way up over the past 2 or 3 years. I have a few cookie recipes that call for it, most often in combination with butter. I've found that all butter makes those recipes slump in the oven -- thinner and greasier than you want a cookie to be. Crisco keeps the cookies plump, a bit more cake-like. The combination of butter and crisco makes them perfect.

I keep my crisco in the fridge and have never had it go bad. I write the date on the lid when I open it. I've been baking cookies every month for my dad's care home and used a big tub per year. Now that he's passed on, I won't be going through it as quickly.

I can't remember the last time I used crisco...it's been years...

I've had the same container since before COVID-19, if that tells you how little I use it. But the things for which I use it, nothing else can be substituted. I'll break down and pay the higher price, IF I ever need more. It'll be a long time.

“I haven’t used Crisco to make cookies…..ever. Do you use it instead of butter?”

I always use all butter for cookies. For me, they taste better and don’t flatten out during baking. For drop cookies like chocolate chip or oatmeal, I chill the dough (often overnight), form it into balls placed on cool cookie sheets and bake. The type of cookie sheet used can also matter. For example, those insulated baking sheets heat up slower and can make the cookies flatten out.

The only time I use Crisco is occasionally for certain pie crusts. Even then it’s part Crisco/part butter for both flakiness and flavor.

Crisco changed their formula back in the 70 or80's. I fond this out when I was out of lard for my pie crust. When the crust cooked it spread. Since I no longer bake much (and lard is hard to find at times here) I have found my crust comes out nicely if I use the lard amount, witch is less.

Wildchild, someone on this site shared her recipe for Better Than Pam. It really works. Equal parts of solid Crisco, cooking oil and flour. When my little can of Crisco gets low, I scrape it out of the can into a bowl, add an equal amount of oil and flour, beat it well with my mixer, and then scrape it back into the Crisco can to use for greasing baking pans. It really is better than Pam.

I had to go to three stores before I found a container of baking powder! Brings me back to March 2020.

I had to go look at the unopened can of Crisco I purchased just in case I could not get butter or other oil either late 2020 or sometime 2021. It expires in June of this year. I use so little oil or butter although I am trying to increase the amount for health reasons.

Interesting thing about baking powder and things changing. I used to purchase a can for my infrequent baking and it would still work several years later although I would add a little bit more than what was called for, 1/4-1/2 teaspoon. The stuff I purchased in 2020 did not work when I made some cornbread a couple of months ago even when I increased the amount. The cornbread stayed the same height as when I poured the batter into the pan.

Other than using up a small amount of something by making the above "Better than Pam" to spread on something why not just spread the little dab onto the baking sheet unless you have been using the Pam that has flour in it.

Hmmm... I need to go look. I only use Crisco or store brand equivalent for pie crust. I bet I have some rancid stuff in my pantry.

I'm another who hasn't used Crisco or any other vegetable shortening in decades. I use salted butter or a combination of butter and oil - usually extra virgin olive oil, which gives a richer taste than a flavorless oil like canola or sunflower. My piecrusts and biscuits come out beautifully light and flaky too.

Liquid vegetable oils will give similar results to hydrogenated products in cakes and cookies, IMPE.

Also, IMPE, all the shortenings and oils I buy have gotten a lot more pricey over the past several years - even pre-pandemic. I only buy organic, so that's certainly a factor.

Just used it?!

1/4 cup for an entire recipe of cornbread. Nothing else will do. Once every six months-a year? Requires a ham bone and white beans.

“Nothing else will do”? What do you suppose cornbread makers might have used before Crisco was invented?

Lard. : ) I think Colleen was just saying Crisco makes good cornbread for her.

Thank you Schoolhouse for this thread. I have not been making much in the way of biscuits or pies since my diabetes diagnosis, but I do occasionally bake when the family comes over for meals. I pitched the two unopened cans of out of date Crisco I had in the pantry, saving myself from a potentially embarrassing experience.

I use it in biscuits, pie dough, chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter cookies. The altitude is soooooooooooo high here, 7560'. Crisco keeps the above items from floating away...then flattening out. Adding extra flour makes the baked goods heavy. That's what high altitude recipes suggest. I'd rather use Crisco. I keep mine in the back of the frig...where other things would freeze. It keeps a very long time. I keep butter in the freezer too.

nicole, where are you located? You must be on a mountain top!

I saw the big can for $8.74 at Aldi today.

I use olive oil in cornbread. I never liked it until I found that recipe. It's very moist, like Italian olive oil cake. I melt a tablespoon of Crisco in the cake pan while the oven is heating and then swirl it around and pour in the cornbread batter. Crisco is what gives you crispness and I am mimicking cornbread in a preheated cast iron skillet when I do that.

I use part Crisco in pie crust because it holds its shape better--no droopy edges. I also have a few cookie recipes that call for half butter, half Crisco.

My mother used it to make pie crusts. I have never in decades ever bought Crisco.

I use it in any recipe that says, "uses shortening". I don't use butter or margarine for those recipes as they won't turn out as good.

I have never used Crisco in my life but my mother did. It was in a can and I had no idea there were sticks now. I guess her use of it made her wonderful pie crusts.

Can a person buy lard now days? I haven't seen it in a grocery store in a long time. It used to be commonly used in pie crust.

I just bought some lard Tenderflake, in a block, near the shortening