It’s not a trick question and the answer is not Pillsbury.
Read on to find out.
A couple weeks ago I had a question about flour and since the Gold Medal site was down, I went to Pillsbury. The little Doughboy was everywhere, their pre-fab biscuits and pie crusts were everywhere, but nowhere was any mention of flour. So I emailed them, asking where’s the flour, and was quite surprised to get this reply:
Dear Valued Consumer:
Thank you for contacting us. The product you referred to is now manufactured by the J.M. Smucker Company.
Please feel free to contact them directly with your questions.
By then I’d found the answer I was looking for, but am I the last person on earth to know this? And how the heck did a little Ohio jelly company end up making Pillsbury flour?
Simple. They own it now. And a lot more. Crisco? Owned by Smucker’s. Jif? Owned by Smucker’s. White Lily, Softasilk, Eagle Brand? Smucker’s. Along with Hungry Jack, Martha White, Robin Hood flour and even After the Fall juice and Pet milk. The list at Smucker’s website is breathtaking.
For all the folksiness of their ads, and the immortal, craggy voice of the late Mason Adams delivering their slogan for decades, Smucker’s is not a little company anymore and hasn’t been for some time.
Their company timeline is fascinating; a different jelly jar for each decade and words urging us to discover how they became “one of the best berries in the patch.” What we learn is that the company, founded in 1897 with apple butter made from apples whose trees go back to the legendary Johnny Appleseed, wasn’t incorporated till 1921, two years before Smucker’s apple butter, jams and jellies were mass-produced. Only in 1942 — not that long ago — did Smucker’s begin national distribution, with its first shipment to Los Angeles. Keep in mind, it’s still just jams and jellies.
In 1959 the company went public and it’s an amazing story of growth, acquisitions and international expansion after that, especially from the 1980’s on. In 2002 Smucker’s bought the Jif and Crisco brands from Proctor and Gamble; in 2004 it acquired International Multifoods Corporation for $840 million, bringing many more familiar brands, including Pillsbury flour, under the umbrella.
Is it any wonder their webiste has an extensive Investor Relations section ?
I have to admire the synergy. Make a loaf of bread with Crisco or Crisco oil and some Robin Hood or Pillsbury flour, slather it with Jif peanut butter and Smucker’s jam, wash it down with After the Fall juice. I will forevermore think of Smucker’s as the little company that could.
And I have a good trivia question to boot.
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Huh! Who knew?
We’re in the midst of combining hard red spring wheat from whence the finest bread dough emerges.
(I had a momentary sinking feeling that the answer to your question was Made in China! :p )
I wondered if anyone would think that!
Some of that hard spring wheat will probably end up in my kitchen. Did you know that in Italy, artisan bakers call North American high-protein flour “Manitoba”? Works for me.
Ah! That’s a wonderful visual ~ the bread bakers.
Also on an Italian note, the durum is already in the bins. Eat pasta!
And how sad that the thought, Made in China, would even pop into my head? But, it’s gotten so pervasive!
The day the news reported the contaminated toothpaste, you could have knocked me over with a feather. “What??? We’re wasting precious resources importing toothpaste from across the Pacific????”
Practicality and common sense have gone right out the window.
All in the name of favorable quarterly reports to shareholders.
I’ve made pasta a couple of times, but with an extruder not a roller. More trouble than it was worth. The KitchenAid roller/cutters are on my wish list, but at $100…I dunno. Do you have a favorite pasta recipe?
As for China, all I can say is: Most Favored Nation Trade Status. Since 1980. Not even Tiananmen Square interrupted it. Both parties are guilty here.
And, of course, the typical American consumer who wants everything at the lowest possible price. But toothpaste??? It is amazing.
What an interesting post. Thanks for doing the research and for sharing the information with your readers.
You’re very welcome. I had a lot of fun doing this one. Good to see you.
Where has your url gone?
Hello, I thought you might like to know that an old Pillsbury cookbook is the only cookbook I still use. I am a 75 year old french canadian lady. I find your white cake recipe useful in my country house. It is often used here in my house also, and, as Dalaï Lama suggested to experiment, this is what I do. With your marvellous butter cake with 7 soup spoonfulls of butter ,(or a stick of butter less 1/2 an inch) 3/4 cup of sugar, 2 big eggs. vanilla, 1 1/2 cup of flour, 2 big tea spoons of baking powder, 1/2 cup of 1% milk. In 8 X 8 mold, oven: 350, 30 minutes.
With small changes I make a super delicious coconut, nut cake or chocolate or carot cake and it always works. Thanks to your delicious, easy, fast and low in calories recipe.
If you desire more information, please contact me.
Thank you and good luck.
Doris Grenier Jeanson,
Thank you for sharing your recipe variation, Doris. It sounds delightful and I love the idea of changing the flavor in the other ways that you do. One recipe can be so versatile with imagination.
Je vous remercie -
ella