Elaine Parrish wrote:

> On Sun, 29 Jan 2006, jake wrote:
>
>
>>Elaine Parrish wrote:
>>
>>>Hominy? Wonderful stuff. It's a typically Southern US item and, roughly,
>>>costs about 1.00 dollar US for 2 15 ounce cans (50 cents a can).
>>>Sometimes, I can get it 3
>>>cans for one dollar. That makes it a very economical item.
>>>
>>
>>This isn't in a can, they had 500 grams of "dry"kernels, labeled hominy.
>>I googled for recipes. The ones I have read so far all assume you have
>>canned hominy and were casseroles, usually. I'll cook part of the 500 g
>>long ahead of time (since I don't know how long it will take) and then
>>try one of those casseroles.
>>
>
>
> I never saw hominy dried and reconstituted without it being ground up
> first.
>
> My grandmother made hominy. She canned it. What she dried, they had ground
> up. Gram always said that whole kernel wouldn't reconstitute well. But
> that might just have been Grams' opinion.
>
> I've never seen dried whole kernel in the markets here.
>
> Please let me know how it comes out. I'm really interested.
>
> >
>
>>Shortening is non-existent her in The Netherlands. People use either
>>margarine, oil, or butter.
>>
>
>
> Shortening was created as a substitute for lard. It's just oil infused
> with hydrogen to make it solid. Oleo (aka, margarine) was a substitute for
> butter and it is just oil infused with hydrogen in order to make it solid.
>
> "Crisco" is the big name because the company spent mega-millions of
> dollars in order to tell the public that it was the best.
>
> If you have butter or margarine or oil, you don't need crisco - especially
> at those prices.
>
>
>
>>>I wouldn't pay 8 times as much for it over other things that I'm familiar
>>>with.
>>>
>>
>>I am not sure what to use as an alternative, because there doesn't seem
>>to be a 1:1 substitute in the stores. But based on what people in this
>>ng are saying, I might just use butter, oil or margarine. Or ask a
>>butcher whether I can order lard (I've never seen it anywhere).
>
>
>
> I use butter or margarine when I need solid fat such as for biscuits or
> pie crusts.
>
> I use oil for frying. Crisco is just oil that is solid at room
> temperature.
>
> If you have a recipe that calls for crisco in something where the crisco
> is solid, just use an equal part of butter or margarine.
>
> For frying, you have to melt the crisco down anyway.
>
> Crisco is a product of advertising, not of necessity.
>
> Elaine, too
>
>
>
>
My Crisco search ends here! I'll use marg;/butter instead. For frying, I
can just use oil.

I will let you know how the hominy turns out. I got it from an "ethnic"
store that sells Surinamese/Hindustani brands. I suspect it is highly
specific for that culture, I've never seen in any other shop before.
Suriname has jungles, maybe that means they packaged it in such a way
that it was light to transport there. Cans would be much heavier. I'm
just guessing, though.

The brand is called AJS and the writing on the package is in Spanish
and in English. Plus Dutch. I couldn't find any info on it through
Google. This isn't unusual for Surinamese products - it's a poor country
with a population of 350,000.