On May 22, 8:18*pm, Omelet > wrote:
> Sorry, but I thought this was funny as hell. ;-)
>
> U.S. Military recipe for brownies and oatmeal cookies.
>
> It's twenty-six pages long and replete with such gems as:
>
> "3.2.4 Shortening, hydrogenated. *Shortening shall be a refined,
> hydrogenated vegetable oil or combination of refined vegetable oils
> which
> are in common use by the baking industry. *Coconut and palm kernel oils
> may
> be used only in the coating. *The shortening shall have a stability of
> not
> less than 100 hours as determined by the Active Oxygen Method (AOM) in
> Method Cd 12-57 of the MIL-C-44072C Commercial Fats and Oils chapter in
> the
> Official and Tentative Methods of the American Oil Chemists Society. *
> The
> shortening may contain alpha monoglycerides and an antioxidant or
> combination of antioxidants, as permitted by the Federal Grain
> Inspection
> Service (FGIS), and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and
> regulations
> promulgated thereunder."
>
> PDFhttp://liw.iki.fi/liw/misc/MIL-C-44072C.pdf


Having been in procurement, I can appreciate that every line spelling
out requirements was borne of bitter experience dealing with suppliers
trying to make the most profit they can. (why prohibit use of rancid
fats? Because experience taught them if it wasn't in the spec, people
would use rancid fat.)