450 Billion Oreos later
May 24, 2012 10:18 PM   Subscribe

No matter how you ate them... Sam J. Porcello, the originator of the creamy filling in the Oreo cookie has died.
posted by HuronBob (40 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
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posted by MrVisible at 10:25 PM on May 24, 2012 [17 favorites]


One thing that struck me early on when I came to Japan was how *perfect* the Oreos here are. Back in the states, the characteristic design on the cookie itself was often kinda half-crummy, not really formed that well, as if the molds that they use aren't really kept clean, or are too worn out or something. But every Oreo in every bag you buy in Japan is absolutely impeccable. That's Japan for you.

RIP, Mr. Oreo.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:26 PM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


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posted by brennen at 10:31 PM on May 24, 2012


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One of the things I miss most about the states is the big packs of oreos. You can get little snack size packs here, but there's nothing like sitting at your desk with a big pack and a jar of peanut butter and plowing through the whole thing in a couple hours.
posted by Karmeliet at 10:33 PM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


You know what makes me sad about Oreos? Ever since I first had Double Stuf, the regular ones just don't make me that happy anymore. I miss being really excited about regular Oreos.

I also hope they never lose their place as a kid's best milk delivery vehicle.
posted by Night_owl at 10:33 PM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


O-R-Oh-No
posted by sourwookie at 11:06 PM on May 24, 2012


|:E
posted by telstar at 11:08 PM on May 24, 2012


May they bury him between two enormous chocolate wafers.

.
posted by mochapickle at 11:09 PM on May 24, 2012 [3 favorites]


I could never eat oreos after I watched a cooking show make the filling 'from scratch' using 1 cup lard and 5 cups icing sugar.
posted by benzenedream at 11:27 PM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


Perhaps appropriately, Mr. Porcello is now stuck in Purgatory, sandwiched between Heaven and Hell.
posted by twoleftfeet at 11:33 PM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


I love me some Oreos (and I did know about the lard) but I've tried some Trader Joe's Joe-Joes and I have to say that they are pretty damn tasty.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 11:40 PM on May 24, 2012


*pours out 5 lb bag of sugar for my homie*
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:28 AM on May 25, 2012 [2 favorites]


When I was 10 or 11 years old, I was trying to impress my dad and his friend by eating four double stuffed oreos at once. I started by dipping them in milk for a while to make sure that they got super soft, but then once they were in my mouth, I realized how absurd it was to try to eat four double stuffed oreos at once. I started laughing at the thought of it, and pretty soon I literally had oreos coming out of my nose.
posted by meows at 12:35 AM on May 25, 2012 [3 favorites]


Somewhere on an alternate Earth, J'onn J'onnz is mourning.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:54 AM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]


For whatever reason, as a kid, I preferred Hydrox until Double Stuf Oreos came along. Then, I never looked back.

:
posted by AugustWest at 1:00 AM on May 25, 2012


They stopped using lard in the filling in the mid 1990s, according to Wikipedia. Powdered sugar and rendered pig fat, yum, so creamy. Oh, and did you know that Oreos are an imitation of the Hydrox cookie and not the other way around?
posted by longsleeves at 1:13 AM on May 25, 2012 [2 favorites]


I always preferred Jammie Dodgers and tea, but this guy's career is interesting:
Food scientist Sam J. Porcello held five patents relating to the iconic cookie; he worked at Nabisco for 34 years.
Those five patents appear to be:
  • 4,865,859 -- Soft soybean oil filler cream compositions
  • 4,834,991 -- Soybean oil filler cream compositions
  • 4,753,812 -- Lipid system for filler composition
  • 4,711,788 -- Cookie filler compositions
  • 3,935,321 -- Accelerated cooling method
I like that last one:
Products having at least an outer layer of a hot semi-liquid material which crystallizes and hardens upon cooling are placed on a conveyor and transported through a cooling tunnel. Within the cooling tunnel, the product is initially subjected to a high voltage field producing a corona current to accelerate initial cooling. The product is moved out of the field while the surface is still semi-liquid and subjected only to the cool air environment of the tunnel while the surface crystallizes and hardens. The product is then moved into a second high voltage field producing a corona current to remove heat from the inner regions of the material to inhibit remelting of the surface after the product exits the cooling tunnel.
Did they use this process? Have your Oreos been zapped twice? "It's alive! Alive!"
posted by pracowity at 2:44 AM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]


.
posted by Mblue at 3:13 AM on May 25, 2012


.

I'm not sure I'd want the phrase originator of the creamy filling anywhere near my obit, but at least if Oreos were a copy of Hydrox he's not the seminal originator.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:16 AM on May 25, 2012 [2 favorites]


I gave my 9 month old son a quarter of an Oreo yesterday just to see what he'd do with it (I don't often share food with him because he has several allergies - when I realized Oreos were technically on the "safe" list, I couldn't resist, even tho I still feel guilty admitting that I feed my baby junk food).

He looked at it once, then scraped the filling off with his teeth and bit into the cookie. I was so proud in that moment. Eats his Oreos just like mama!

.
posted by annathea at 3:28 AM on May 25, 2012 [3 favorites]


We've only had Oreos in the UK for the past five years or so - not sure they've quite displaced their Aryan cousins yet.
posted by mippy at 3:33 AM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]


They stopped using lard in the filling in the mid 1990s, according to Wikipedia.

This is why Oreos don't taste as good as they did when you were a kid.
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:36 AM on May 25, 2012 [2 favorites]


And everybody should listen to this song today.
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:37 AM on May 25, 2012


Oh, and did you know that Oreos are an imitationimprovement of the Hydrox cookie and not the other way around?

ftfy ;)

~They stopped using lard in the filling in the mid 1990s, according to Wikipedia.
~This is why Oreos don't taste as good as they did when you were a kid.


And why, now, the cookie halves are so easy to remove. And why you can simply lift the cream off the cookie in a solid disc. Bring back lard!!!!!!
posted by Thorzdad at 4:34 AM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]


O
posted by tommasz at 4:45 AM on May 25, 2012


Bring back lard!!!!!!

So that's why I don't remember eating Oreos as a kid. I completely remember our throwing a free pack of Oreos away because of learning it had lard in it. My family was and is vegetarian.

I guess they could introduce Lardeos for people who want it. I'm better off not eating them.
posted by discopolo at 4:55 AM on May 25, 2012


stopped using lard in the filling in the mid 1990s


Yeah and replaced it with polydextrochlorohexifuggedaboutit.
posted by spitbull at 5:43 AM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]


J'onn J'onzz is inconsolable.

Me? I've had Oreos once or twice and... I flagged and moved on.
posted by Mezentian at 5:50 AM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]


I hope his embalmer has a sense of humor and fills him with... you know.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:06 AM on May 25, 2012 [3 favorites]


:

Porcello was one of the world’s foremost experts on cocoa, the raw material of chocolate, and the go-to guy for all Oreo related matters at Nabisco. “My father was proud of what he did,” says Curtis Porcello, one of his two sons told the New York Daily News. “He’d come home and tell us all what he was working on.”

"What did you do at work today, pops?"
"I invented the Double Stuff! Here check it out."
"You're the best Dad in the whole wide world, Pops!"
posted by JohnnyGunn at 6:42 AM on May 25, 2012


I made Oreos from scratch once, which was an exciting project. The cookies were great and thick, but the icing? That was just powdered sugar and Crisco.

I liked it better when it was magic, not a tub of sugarfat.

(Haven't made them again; it's a lot of work for something that tastes like an Oreo.)
posted by Turkey Glue at 6:42 AM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]


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posted by rahnefan at 6:52 AM on May 25, 2012


I made those same from-scratch Oreos, Turkey Glue, but I used peppermint extract in the filling and then dipped them in chocolate, to make mint fudge Oreos, like the ones they used to make before they became cold-hearted bastards.
posted by Night_owl at 7:18 AM on May 25, 2012


Oh, no, based on my birth date, it's impossible for me to have ever had the lard filling that is supposedly so delicious. Every time I popped into threads about foods that have been around awhile, I feel robbed ...but is the conviction that they used to be better simply because that's what your childhood used to taste like?

Oh, one of my friends is a vegan, and she taught me that Oreos are actually vegan-friendly. Looks like this may not be true in Europe, but in the US at least, the ingredients list doesn't look too offensive. Surprising lack of anything dairy for the filling.
posted by estlin at 7:43 AM on May 25, 2012


I made Oreos from scratch once, which was an exciting project. The cookies were great and thick, but the icing? That was just powdered sugar and Crisco.

Couldn't you use a nice cream cheese / whipped cream / butter cream frosting? I mean, still technically a tub of sugarfat, but less industrial-ish sugarfat.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:57 AM on May 25, 2012


And why, now, the cookie halves are so easy to remove.

And all along I thought I just got better at it. I'm crushed.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 9:58 AM on May 25, 2012


I liked them a lot better when the 'stuff' was made from lard. When they switched to shortening, it just seemed greasy.
posted by BlueScreen at 10:27 AM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]


Oh oh oh ooooh... The White Stuff.

RIP
posted by symbioid at 11:32 AM on May 25, 2012


I felt the same way Turkey Glue, but the cookies were pretty good on their own, without the filling.
posted by Karmeliet at 2:53 PM on May 25, 2012


I was just dreaming about Oreos a few moments ago. I got a new job, trays of Oreos were passed around at the meeting, and the boss-person yelled at me for grabbing an Oreo off the plate without picking it up and passing it. My B.
posted by Buckt at 10:39 AM on May 26, 2012


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