Then how does the 72-hr "candle" work?
I think the point was Crisco has a high smoke point.
72 hour candle? You need a proper wick that will burn by itself. The Crisco just moderates the burn. The necessary chemistry of the wick was missing from the first story.
Remember how your basic kerosene lamp uses a 1’ wide wick, the wick sucks up the kerosene, then burns at the top of the wick? Crisco doesn’t “wick” like that. It doesn’t even “diesel” which is why it worked good as a submarine diesel engine lube.
But keep it in your prepper stuff anyway because it can help make a lot of miscellaneous stuff edible.