Crisco

In 1911 the Procter & Gamble Company of Cincinnati, Ohio—until then best known for Ivory soap—introduced “An Absolutely New Product. A Scientific Discovery Which [Would] Affect Every Kitchen in America. Something that the American housewife had always wanted” (Krondl, 1995, p. 266). It was Crisco. Procter & Gamble was well placed to manufacture hydrogenated vegetable shortening, because the technology to make soap is substantially the same. Moreover, the company had been in the shortening business since at least 1870, when lard was part of its line.