WEBSITE REVIEW – CRISCO.COM
Hello everyone! Today I have decided to do a website review of one of my Dutch oven aids – Crisco. I use Crisco to season my Dutch ovens and found that their website is a great source of cooking tips, recipes and articles.
I really like how they designed their homepage (first page you see when you go to www.Crisco.com) as you can preview mostly all site components in one glance. Your screen welcomes you with tempting food pictures from Crisco's recipe box – just one click and it'll take you to the recipe directly. The table at the top neatly categorizes the different sections of their website. Down below, a quick preview of Cooking tips, Fresh Ideas from Crisco and Current Promotions are presented. This would really be a time saver for web surfers on-the-go.
Crisco.com offers “My Crisco” where you can have your own database of recipes and groceries. Signing up is easy, though not a requirement to view other site sections. Just click on “email sign up” and fill out the necessary information. Once you have signed up, you would have your own recipe box, grocery list and access to the message board.
The recipe box allows you to add your favorite recipes and organize them by categories. You can either add recipes by browsing their recipe database or add your own by manually entering it. The site provides a very simple form to fill out if you want to add your own recipe. Adding items to your grocery list follows the same process as adding recipes; you could take from the database or add your own. What's good about this is you can have all the recipes you want to prepare, say, for Thanksgiving dinner, and then you can just go to your grocery list, print it out and run to the market. This helps you make sure you won't forget anything so no more 2nd or 3rd trips to the grocery store (and save up on gas, too).
Like most websites, Crisco.com also has a message board where you can ask questions and share best practices with other Crisco users. The message board is very simple and houses a list of topics members have posted and replied to. What I don’t like about it, though, is that it’s not categorized by topic. If you have posted a topic 2 weeks ago, it will get buried by the newer topics other members have posted. A quick way to find articles/posts would be to use the “search: feature at the top and selecting “articles”.
A very useful section found in the website is the Articles & Tips. You don’t need to sign up to access this and it is highly informational housing Cooking Basics, Crisco Central, Seasonal Ideas and Cooking Tips.
Cooking Basics provides kitchen general information. The picture to the left displays the topics found under this section which is especially useful when you are starting to build your own kitchen.
One of my favorite parts is Seasonal Ideas as it lists themed/holiday menus for just about every occasion. All recipes under each category have ingredients that are available for the season it is listed under, which I find really great.
Clicking on About Crisco is also a treat, taking you through Crisco’s development from 1836 to today. They have great pictures of old Crisco products, advertisements, recipe books and day to day factory activities coupled with an informational write up which makes a good read.
Since this website is designed with the everyday consumer in mind, it does not have that many resources for outdoor cooking. I tried doing a search for Dutch ovens and Firepits and it didn’t return any useful results. On the up side, they have good resources for grilling and barbecues.
For my own recipe box, I have already added some recipes for the grill and am heading out to fire up my barbecue! Hope you enjoyed my review!
