New Britain Herald Newspaper, November 3, 1924, Page 3

HOW SNOWDRIFT IS MADE In Sepremper the fields of the South were white with cotton and cheerful darkics were slowly shuffling down the long rows, picking the snow-white bolls. Tf it weren't for that cotton crop we'd be hun- gry people this year. In its way that cotton crop is as necessary as the wheat crop of the great Northwest, if we're to be 2 wholesome, well- fed nation. Cotton sced supplies something more than a third of all the fat we cat. More than a billion pounds a year. We'd be hungry ‘people if it weren't for that cotton crop. - Does it scem odd to think of cotton in connec- tion with cooking fat? Or trees in connection with sugar? Nature is very generous. We get maple sugar and syrup from a tree that may some day be the boards on our kitchen floor. We get a delicious, wholesome fat from a plant that may give us our gingham apron, too. Cotton is one of the most important food crops in this country. When the cotton is picked it is taken to the gio, Eli Whitney's great invention, where the szl is picked out from the long, white fibre. Ths white cotton is baled and shipped off to the mills to be woven into cloth for the outside of us, and the sced to the “crusher’ to become food for the inside of us. The cotton sced, as it comes from the gin, is small and gray and looks a bit like a pussy-wil- low bud because of the short cotton fibre that clings to the outside. It is put into an ingenious machine where tiny knives scrape off this"lint”" from the hull or shell and, thoroughly scraped, the cotton seed is like a little, dark brown nut. These seeds, or nuts, are cracked so as te get at the kernels or “‘meats,” rich with oil, and thzn heated—""cooked,” wesay—in great steam kettles so that the oil can be easily pressed out. “This job of cooking the “'meats’" is quite a skill- fulone. Tn our Company we're as proud of some of our old, experienced cooks as a good hotel ‘might be of its chef. There is an opportunity ‘for judgment and skill in this cooking and it -ma’es a difference in the product. When the meats are cooked, they are placed .in huge hydraulic presses and the rich molasses- colored oil is squeezed out. The quality of this oil will vary considerably Cotton seed, for instance, is no mqre uniform than wheat or corn or any other crop. All the apples even from the same tree aren’t going to bz exactly alike and cach exactly as good as the next. The quality of oil will vary, depending on the seed and the cooking, and our first oppor- tunity to make Snowdrift better than any other cooking fat i¢ to sclect only the choicest oil from the millions of gallons pressed. The oil then goes to a refinery. As it is pressed from the seed the oil is dark in color and has a decided odor and flavor. Some folks like this flavor. More don’t. If you like molasses better than white granulated sugar, vou might possibly prefer cotton seed oil before it was refined. Molasses not only sweetens but flavors every- thing it sweetens. You “taste”’ the holasses in everything you sweeten with it. Refined sugar sweetens, but doesn't change the flavor. Simi- larly, good cooks want a fat that fattens or en riches food without making everything “taste’ of the fat used. So oil refiners not only try to get all impurities out of the oil, but also try to take out the color and any strong flavor. The ideal oil would be aimost as clear ascrys tal—just pure, rich pil—100 per cent. fat—with no imputities, coloring matter or flavor what ever. The best we have ever seen (Wesson Oil) is such a pale, straw color that it is almast no color at all, and is so delicate in flavor that you ‘really feel the rich, delicious oil in your mouth more than you faste any flavor. There are many good refiners and most of the cotton sced oil on the market is pretty good Ordinarily it bears about the relation to old fashioned cotton seed oil that light brown sugat does to'molasses, so far as color and taste are concerned. That is, it is ycllow and has a dis- tinct flavor that you may or may not like, but it is good, wholesome food. Quite naturally, all refining isnt alike. When a thing takes knowledge and skill and experi- ence some are bound to do it berter than others NEW BRITAIN DAILY HERALD, —to say nothing of the difference in the stand- ard of excellence that different men aim at. Our next opportunity to make Snowdrift bet- ter than any other cooking fat is to refine our selected oil to a degree of purity and goodness that we do not believe is equalled by any other refiner. We do just that. By the Wesson method. That doesn’t sound like a very modest state- ment, but it's true. As a reader of advertise- ments you might be satisfied when we tell the truth and not expect us to be modest, too, about these things we're proud of. The oil that is to be made into Snowdrift is refined by the Wesson method to a degree of purity and goodness that we do not believe is cqualled by any other oil you could buy—100 per cent. pure, rich, nourishing food. *‘The Doctor,"" as we call David Wesson (he is anceminent chemist, not a physician, and his offi- cialtitle in our Company now is Technical Direc- tor) is an authority on the refining of vegetable oil, and invented or discovered, or whatever is the thing one does with a method, 2 method of refining oil that was named after him. The Wesson method of refining vegetable oil probably marked the greatest advance in the interest of the whole industry. Choice oil, refined by the Wesson method to an unequalled purity and richness, is then ready t0 be made into Snowdrift. Snowdrift is made entirely of this pure vege- table oil—nothing else—hardened intoa creamy cooking fat,byhydrogenating, because—frankly —the women of this country didn't want tocook with a liquid fat but wanted: their cooking fat to be white and solid and look like the old- fashioned hog lard they were accustomed to. When you come to think of it, all fat arc oils —oralloils fats, whichever way you want tosay it. It is just 2 matter of temperature. At 30 de- greesFahrenheit vegetable oil, butter and hog lard are all solid fats. At ordi- nary rooth temperature the vegetable ol is liquid and the butter and lard still hard. Around roo de- grees the butter melts, vegetable oil “and butter are liquid and the hog lard soft. At 115 degrees the lard melts and all three fats are liquid. However, habit is strong. Years ago, when cotton seed oil was first offered to women as a cooking fat, they didn't want to use liquid fat They wanted it white and solid. The ladies usually get their own way It was discovered that oleostearine—tallow or beef suet—could be mixed with vegetable oil in some way or other, chilled and the mixture would harden into a solid fat with the appear ance and consistency of hog lard For many ycars vegetable (that is, vegetable) shortening was made in this way Manyv manufacturers still make it that way —and tell you so on their labels if you wiil read all the small type. Snowdrift—fresh rich creamy . cooking fat for making cake, : biscuit and pastry and for frying MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1924, M But in the search for improvement an English- man discovered that by hydrogenating it was possible to make a solid fat entirely of pure vegetable oil. Some of us are not acquainted with hydrogen except as a part of water. The only chemical formula some of us know, off- hand, is H.O—two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen—making pure water. By a ging a little hydrogen to vegetable oil under pressure and chilling it, the o1l becomes uite hard at ordinary room temperature. And &is hardened oil, itself a pure vegetable fat, can be used instead of tallow or suet to solidify more vegetable oil. This discovery enables us to make Snowdrift an absolutely pure vegetable fat. A small quantity of Wessonized oil has hy- drogen added to it until it is a glistening, hard, white fat. A bit of this hardened oil is melted and mixed with the rest of the oil. It is then poured into pans in which huge tolls are slowly turning round. These rolls are hollow and filled with brine from an ice ma- chine, so that they are freezing cold on the out- side. As these icy rolls dip into the pans of warm oil the oil ischilled and clings to the rolls like so much soft snow. As the rolls turn round this soft, snowy fat is brought up out of the pan below and keen knives scrape it off into a “beatet” —a large cylinder in which there is a rapidly spinning rod with blades like a giant egg-beater, which whip up the fat into a2 white creaminess. Our method of hydrogenating is not an exclu- siveone, like the Wesson method of refining. Al makers of pure vegetable cooking fat kydro- genate their oil in somewhat the same way. But even in doing somewhat the same thing there is opportunity for usto use the experience and skill of twenty odd years in making this process con- teibute to the superiority of Snowdrift. Just the right degree of hardness in the hardened oil—exactly theright pro- portion of hard white fat to clear liquid fat—just the right chill—and judg- ment in the whipping—all these things give Snow- drift two qualities very different from other cook- ing fats and very popular Vsers. dSnow i(\{( comes out white and creams Sfl(\\h]rih ‘(Ji‘\;\“k reamy ZT"F(RQ\ touse, no matter what the weather. It is never too hard nor toosoft. You ve probably tried cooking fat that got hard as a brick in cold weather, so you could hardly dig it out with a knife, and then so soft and mushy inwarm weatherthat voualmost had to spoon it. Hvdrogenated fat tends to get too hard when it 1s chilled and ro melt suddenly before 1t 1s verv warm. The secret of Snow- drift’'s creaminess is to add o /rt7le hydrogen- ated fat. No matter what the weather Snowdrift is just the creamy consistency that a cook finds most convenient to use. This isn't an accident. Tt doesn't just Rappen s0. It is one of the results of trying for more, than twenty years to make a perfect cooking fat—not only pure and good to eat, but pretty, to look at and convenient to cook with. { From the “'beater’’ Snowdrift is pressed—glise] tening, white, pure, rich and creamy—into ai tight cans or buckets to bring it to your kitchen as sweet and fresh as the day it was made. This airtight can is last, but far from leastss The way we send Snowdrift to you may not secm! a part of the story of making Snowdrift, but i is tremendously important, g«ausc on that tight can depends what Snowdrift is like when you get it. Tt doesn’t do you any good for us ta make Snowdrift good unless it's good when get it. Any cooking fat or shortening is faty Any pure fat, without a preservative in it, wfll grow old and stale and finally rancid in the course of time—how soon depending somewhag on the weather. '« s> VA H It takes time for 2 cooking fat to makethe from where it is made to your kitchen table4 There may be a long railroad journey, or delays in shipping. There are sometimes long waits: grocers’ warchouses and more ot less time on your grocer's shelves. You might A et a can or bucket of cooking fat within s few ays after it is made, but it is more likely to scveral weeks old and sometimes months. Of course, if you found fat objectionably: strong or rancid, you wouldn’t useit. Butifthe fat had grown old and stale, without actually} spoiling, most folks would use it, think it was! not 2 very good kind of fat, and never know! what the real trouble was, . g Sosuiesia’ Lots of women have told us that they’ve used cooking fat of one kind or another all their life] and never really knew, until they tried Snows] drift, how sweet and fresh a fat cosld be, ..« * ‘ We used to put out Stiowdrift in ordinary cans! and buckets and tubs, just like anybody else.: Soon we discovered that in an tub wel couldn’t be sure what Snowdrift would be like when you got it—we couldn’t even be sure it was clean. After that we packed Snowdrift only i tightly covered buckets. Then, one day years ago, we found some Snowdrift en the shelves iné grocery stores that we were ashamed of —Snows: drift that we couldn't belicve was Snowdrifes The covered buckets had kept it clean—but that! was all—and the Snowdrift was very, very staley We realized then that lots of women might askl for Snowdrift and get this stale, ordinary fag instead of the good, fresh fat we'd made. What was the use of all our care and pride in; making Snowdrift the very finest we knew how: if we sent it out and let Juck decide whethet you. got it as good as we made it, or warm weathes and standing on grocers’ shelves had almost spoiled it before it reached your kitchen? G We put Snowdrift in an airtight can, so that, when you open it in your kitchen it is as swoeat’ and fresh and good as the day we make it. Nothing but an airtight can or bucket will} keep it fresh. A tight cover won't do, even if iy is on pretty tight. Freshness depends on real, airtightness, as you know if you have ever done? any canning or preserving yourself. If vou ever find a can of Snowdrift that isn'e! sweet and fresh as the day we made it, the troublec isn’t with Snowdrift, it is with that cand You've probably had an occasional jar of your own leak and the contents spoil. Once in 8 while a Snowdrift can doesn’t stay airtight and the Snowdrift is no better than if it were packed in an ordinary tin or bucket. Take that can back to vour grocer and get a can of rea/ Snow- drift with our compliments—fresh and good as the day it was made. Tn the carly days a truly airtight can wasn’e very convenient, but the goodness of fresh Snowdrift was worth the bother to open the most obstinate can. Now, in our constant ef- fort to do everything we can to make Snowdrift a perfect cooking fat, we ve even improved the can, so that it is right convenient to open and still keeps Snowdrift fresh That's the whole story of making Snowdrift. The choicest vegetable oil—refined the Wese son wav to a purity and goodness we do nos believe 1s attained by any other cooking fat— hydrogenadded toa bit of it—chilled —whipped into creamy whitencss—100 per cent. pure,! rich, nourishing food—packed in a truly aire tight can, so that when vou get it in your kitchen it is as sweet and fresh and 5ood a8 the day it was made. e