Advertise
Quality, Research and Development Manager at the Cairo Company for Oil Extraction and Refining.
• Shortcuts are the term used to describe the function of natural solid fats such as butter and pork fat in baked goods as they reduce the consistency and adhesion of flour gluten during the dough and baking process. This term includes all vegetable oils used as substitutes for pork fat and many oils and fats are included in this term in order to distinguish them from industrial margarine. Industrial margarine is different from those that are 100% oils or fats. Margarine contains other additives, the most important of which is water so that the percentage of fat is not less than 80%.
• Currently, the term “shorteners” includes all oils and fats that affect the characteristics of food, whether taste, flavor, appearance and better storage conditions, regardless of the different method of use.
• It can be said that vegetable oil is a 100% American invention. Cottonseed oil was the cornerstone of this. How?
• As a result of the expansion of cultivated cotton areas, especially after World War I, this resulted in large amounts of cottonseed oil, which was repeated in a primitive way by removing glue, neutralization and bleaching in order to get rid of the pungent smell, dark color and bitter taste resulting from Gossypol dye.
• The use of cottonseed was limited to industrial uses such as soap making, oil lamps and the manufacture of varnish. It was not used as a food oil due to its unacceptable smell as the removal technique was not discovered until then.
• American meat manufacturers secretly added cottonseed oil to pork fat (the main fat used in baked goods and frying at the time). This fraud was kept secret until it was discovered that the quantities produced from pork fat exceeded what could be produced from livestock from pigs.
• This resulted in the mandatory term for these products in which cottonseed oil is added to pork fat as Lard compounds, which were then called compounds.
• This product was not well received and encouraged by consumers due to the pungent smell of cottonseed oil and the consumer's expectation of a white color similar to lard.
• The discovery of the technique of removal by steam roasted under vacuum and the development of refining technology played a role in improving the product. However, vegetable oils were not independent because meat manufacturers monopolized these hardening agents (pork fat), without which vegetable oils could not be marketed, so the cost was not low.
• Hydrogenation technology was the kiss of life and the factor that gave vegetable oil manufacturers independence from meat manufacturers. Hydrogenation technology was able to convert vegetable oils into semi-solid fats similar to animal fats. The producers of cottonseed oil had the foresight to abandon the concept of pork fat substitutes and introduce their hydrogenated products as a new food ingredient known as shortening.
• Crisco is the first company to launch commercial shorting in 1912 from hydrogenated cottonseed oil.
• Hydrogenation technology has given several advantages to shortening products over lard products as follows:
a. Controlling the characteristics of shortenings to make them more consistent with industry requirements. On the other hand, the consistency of pork fat varies according to the time of year, the variety and age of pigs, and the type of feed.
b. Oxidative stability (withstands higher temperatures and longer storage period).
(c) Unifying the characteristics of cottonseed shorting has benefited bakers and housewives alike at the expense of animal fat products. This has confirmed the willingness of consumers to raise higher prices to obtain shortning hydrogenated cottonseed oil.
In the end, this invention opened the door wide to refining oils from different seeds and beginning a new era based on oils from 100% vegetable sources.
