Oreos were originally made with lard rather than hydrogenated vegetable shortening like today. Not too long ago, in an attempt to make the Oreo more “healthy” I guess, or just cheaper, the lard/sugar center was replaced with that transfat/sugar goop in there now.
A quick search on the net found the following Oreo history/trivia:
A history of Hydrox and Oreo cookies
Hydrox today seems a rather unappetizing name for a yummy cookie. It sounds more like a fuel for your Scout-class starship in Traveller. Hydrox was introduced in 1908 by a company called Sunshine Biscuits. Sunshine wanted a cookie that synched with the name as well as capture a sense of purity. What was more pure than sun and water? Water was, of course, made up of hydrogen and oxygen, so Hydrox seemed a pretty sweet name.
In 1912, Nabisco released the look-alike Oreo. Nabisco, even then, was a large company. It dwarfed Sunshine Biscuits in terms of distribution channels and advertising budgets. It wasn't long before people came to think of Oreo as the original vanilla-goop-surrounded-by-two-chocolate-wafers cookies and Hydrox as some cheap knock-off brand that the downstairs help and French Canadians ate.
Similar in appearance, there was a chief, early difference between Hydrox and Oreo cookies. Hydrox was made from vegetable oil while Oreo cookies, for a long time, used lard. Although Oreo sales dwarfed Hydrox by about 300 to 1, Hydrox attracted an earnest cult following. Chief among Hydrox's followers were Jews who couldn't eat lard-based Oreos but could eat Hydrox and keep kosher. Later Hydrox attracted vegetarians.
In 1996 Keebler, those bastard elves, bought Sunshine Biscuits and retired the brand. A few years later they changed the recipe and released a wafers-goop-surrounded-by-two-chocolate-wafers cookie called "Droxies". Though the name seemed more whimsical and in keeping with the company notion that obese stunted tree elves bake their products, the Droxies name only managed to confuse most consumers. Where as many thought Hydrox was a cheap knock off of Oreo, many today believe Droxies to be a cheap knock off of Hydrox.
And here is a little more Oreo history/trivia >>>
http://www.culturefreak.com/oreo.html
Here is a little interesting history on hydrogenated vegetable oils and Crisco in particular >>>
http://www.westonaprice.org/know_yo...ats_crisco.html