Berlin, Berlin, Soap, Paper, The Supreme Court and Desserts
Delicious desserts you know so well, probably don’t remind you of soap, paper, and the Supreme Court.
When you think of those tasty pies and cakes you know so well, probably the first thing that pops in your mind is not soap, paper, litigation, two Berlins and a visit to the Supreme Court. However, all of that is a part of those tasty memories and experiences of those treats depending on the shortening the baker used.
The American form of hydrogenated vegetable shortening has its origin in two places with connections to the name Berlin, one in Germany and the other in the New England state of New Hampshire. There is also a British connection as well.
The European leg of the story begins in Germany where Wilhelm Norman created the process of hydrogenation. Using heat and a metal catalyst like nickel, hydrogen atoms bond to molecules of normal vegetable oils and animal fats. This sufficiently changes their properties enough to give them a long shelf-life.
Hydrogenation happens at the molecular level: Hydrogen atoms make a single bond with the molecules of the original substance, this replaces the double bonds structure of each molecule. The result is saturated fat also called hydrogen saturated fat that we use in cooking today.
The idea of vegetable oil and animal fats with long shelf-lives at room temperature may not seem as important today as it was one hundred years ago. Keep in mind, this is in the early part of the twentieth-century. Home refrigeration, which is a staple homes today, was the stuff of science fiction. In fact, consumer refrigerators would just begin to appear on the scene and even then they were quite rudimentary. It was another ten years before they were more in wider use.
Most people had an ice box which was a non-electric refrigerator that used a daily block of ice to keep things cooler than normal. Vendors sold it door to door similar to the work of milkmen. Consumers needed to replace the block daily. Ice companies used their store of frozen water “harvested” from lakes and ponds. This is what kept the daily delivery of milk, the daily store of meat and other items cold.
The fascination with a lard-like substance that does not go bad at room temperatures is dream item for such a kitchen.
The original purpose for hydrogenating oils was to use them in the manufacturing of soap. This is how a soap manufacturer got a hold of the process as it was used this way in Europe.
Later, a chemist from the British company Crosfield, which held the patent from England and Germany, moved to Ohio and brought the process to the headquarters of Proctor and Gamble.
P&G planned also to use it in their famous soap products, however, they found that it could form a good shortening product for cooking. They filed a patent for it in the United States in 1910. The patent, however, was not granted until 1915. They marketed it as Crisco.
Meanwhile, the other Berlin in Northern New Hampshire was the home of the Berlin Paper Mills. They too were not in the shortening business. As their name implies, they manufactured a whole line of paper products. There the company scientists also discovered the process of hydrogenation and also developed a way use it to make a form of shortening with a long shelf life. They patented their development in 1914 and 1916. They called it Kream Krisp and likewise offered it on the market.
Proctor and Gamble quickly sued for patent infringement even though both companies had patents for the same process.
Meanwhile, World War I began and the Berlin Mills changed its name to the Brown Mills to separate any perceived connection to the other Berlin in Germany.
The lower courts sided with Proctor and Gamble and so Brown appealed. The case ended up in front of the Supreme Court which ruled on it in 1920. Proctor and Gamble lost as the court did not so much as side with Brown as much as indicate that the process of hydrogenation was actually not patentable in the first place. It was simply a scientific process that anyone could use or discover on their own, therefore, there was no patent office protection afforded to it. Both Crisco and Kream Krisp could exist side by side.
So where is Kream Krisp today?
Well it is not used to make doughnuts.
Brown sold the rights to Proctor and Gamble in the 1920’s and it is now part of the history of Crisco. P&G sold Crisco to the J.M. Smucker Company not long after the turn of this century where it remains today.
The Brown Paper Mills succumbed to the effects of the depression and limped under several owners until the 2000’s.
So the next time you enjoy those tasty cookies and pies you can think of a wood processor, a soap manufacturer, a way to bond hydrogen atoms to vegetable oils and animal fats and the Supreme Court all of which are in the history of that simple product that we now call Crisco.
Sources:
What Are Hydrogenated Fats, Study.com
Berlin Mills Co. v. Proctor and Gamble, Supreme.Justicia.com
Hydrogenation Definition in Chemistry, Thoughtco.com
Closing of Pulp Mill End of an Era for Berlin, Conway Daily Sun
