Crisco, a hydrogenated cottonseed oil, was created to replace lard in cooking and baking. It became popular due to its health benefits and has evolved over time. To find Fluffo shortening in the United States, check with larger grocery chains or specialty food stores.
When it comes to baking bread, the choice between butter and shortening can make a significant difference in the final product. Shortening has been known to lengthen the shelf life of goods and produce fluffier, flakier bakes. Lard, a pasture-raised pig fat, is high in vitamin D, cholesterol, and B vitamins and helps absorb them.
The BakeRite Company is an experienced importer, stockist, and distributor of a unique range of healthy, natural, and “Free From” ingredients. They offer Bake Rite Shortening, which is the ideal ingredient for all your recipes. With 42 ounces of product, it lasts through multiple baking sessions.
Shortening is any fat that is a solid at room temperature and is used to make crumbly pastry and other food products. Bake Rite Foods Inc. is expanding retail sales with the help of government contracts, and it is just solid vegetable oil. It is an alternative to lard like margarine, and can be used to grease pans and fry food.
Vegan shortening “shortens” gluten strands by preventing them from forming in the dough. Crisco’s original all-vegetable shortening used to make the perfect pie crust still holds up, and using GV brand vegetable shortening and water has never had any problems with taste, texture, etc.
📹 WTF is shortening?
Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about vegetable shortening; its birth from a cotton byproduct, why people use it, why it’s …
Why is shortening not used in baking anymore?
Shortening, a type of fat utilized in culinary practices such as cooking and baking, has a lengthy history in American kitchens, with its earliest documented usage dating back to the early 1900s. However, due to its high trans fat content, shortening has become a less popular choice. In consequence of the prohibition of trans fats in the United States, shortenings have been reformulated to be free of these fats. This article presents an analysis of the scientific literature on shortening and its effects on human health.
What happened to Crisco shortening?
Crisco vegetable oil was first introduced in 1960 and later rebranded as Puritan Oil in 1976. In 2002, Procter and Gamble divested the Crisco brand and Jif peanut butter, merging them with J. M. Smucker Co. in 2002. B and G Foods acquired the Crisco brand in December 2020. In 2004, Smucker introduced Crisco Zero Grams Trans Fat Per Serving All-Vegetable Shortening, which contained fully hydrogenated palm oil blended with liquid vegetable oils. In 2007, all Crisco shortening products were reformulated to contain less than one gram of trans fat per serving.
The separately marketed trans fat-free version was discontinued in 2004. As of October 2022, Crisco consists of soybean oil, fully hydrogenated palm oil, and palm oil, with a 12-g serving containing 3. 5 g of saturated fat, 0 g of trans fat, 6 g of polyunsaturated fat, and 2. 5 g of monounsaturated fat. The FDA allows food manufacturers to list amounts of trans fat with less than 0. 5 gram per serving as 0 on the Nutrition Facts panel.
Do professional bakers use shortening?
High ratio shortening is a baking shortening made from 100 fat with emulsifiers, designed for cake making. It can be easily blended into other ingredients like sugar and flour, making batters creamier and lighter. Its added emulsifiers hold moisture and air, making frostings smoother. This 100-fat shortening can withstand high heat, making it ideal for icings and frostings used to decorate cakes. It is well-loved by cake makers because it can withstand various elements, preventing icing from melting or falling in different climates. Popular brands of high ratio shortening include Sweetex, which is available at Stover and Company for all your cake making needs.
What is another name for shortening in baking?
In the context of culinary practice, shortening is the abbreviation of a text or written work, typically used in cooking. It is typically liquid or viscous in consistency.
Is Crisco still around?
Over 100 years ago, Crisco®, the first all-vegetable shortening made entirely of vegetable oil, revolutionized the kitchen in the United States. Known as a “pure” and economical alternative to animal fat and butter, Crisco was sold in pristine white-paper overwrap. After its first print and radio ads, products fetched off shelves, and the first Crisco cookbook taught Americans innovative ways to use Crisco, from baking to frying, resulting in a cooking revolution.
What are the 4 kinds of shortening that usually used in baking?
The Spruce Eats lists four common vegetable shortening types: solid, liquid, all-purpose, and cake or icing shortening. Solid shortening, similar to butter, is ideal for pie crusts as it maintains structural integrity during baking. It is derived from vegetable oils like soybean oil, cottonseed oil, or palm oil and has a neutral flavor, making it versatile for a wide range of baking purposes. In contrast, butter tends to soften and can lead to crust collapse.
What is the best substitute for shortening?
A good shortening substitute in cookies is 100 butter, which is known for its short, crumbly texture and mild flavor. In biscuits, lard, shortening, or a mix is preferred for guaranteed flakiness, while butter is preferred for its A+ flavor. A 1:1 ratio of butter or margarine can be used in biscuit recipes that call for shortening. For bread, enriching dough with fat is a great way to add tenderness and flavor. For example, oil in challah and butter in brioche are classic examples.
If a bread recipe calls for shortening, an equal quantity of butter, oil, or leaf lard or bacon fat can be swapped for added savoriness. In summary, shortening can be a versatile and versatile shortening substitute in various recipes, such as cookies, biscuits, bread, and bread.
Why is shortening unhealthy?
Shortening is a solid fat that is commonly used in baking, particularly for the preparation of crumbly pastries and breads. The use of processed vegetable shorteners, frequently manufactured with hydrogenated oils and trans fats, has been associated with adverse health outcomes, including an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease, myocardial infarction, and stroke. It is advisable to utilize healthier shortening substitutes, such as grass-fed butter, ghee, or coconut oil, in lieu of the conventional shortening.
What can be replaced with shortening?
Shortening is a common ingredient in many recipes, but it can be replaced with alternatives like margarine and butter. Margarine and butter contain a small percentage of water, making them richer and tender. However, their moisture contents should be considered before making the swap. Many community members have successfully swapped margarine and butter in place of vegetable shortening, with the ratio remaining the same.
In cookies, shortening cookies are short, domed, and mild, while butter cookies are crisper, flatter, and butterier in flavor. To replace shortening in a cookie recipe, 100 butter can be swapped, but the liquid may need to be reduced due to the butter’s water content. A mix of butter and coconut oil can also be used.
In biscuits, lard, shortening, or a mix can be used for guaranteed flakiness, while butter is preferred for its A+ flavor. If a biscuit recipe calls for shortening, butter or margarine can be swapped at a 1:1 ratio. A recipe from Sweet Laurel Bakery uses almond flour instead of all-purpose flour and coconut oil instead of shortening or butter.
Why is there a Crisco shortage?
Export bans and weather issues have led to high prices for edible oils like soybean, palm, and canola, causing manufacturers to struggle to find substitutes and cover increased costs. The Consumer Price Index for fats and oils rose 20. 8 on a 12-month basis in July. However, the run-up in edible oil prices is showing signs of easing, with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s global Vegetable Oil Price index falling 19. 2 to reach a 10-month low.
International quotes for rapeseed oil, known as canola in North America, fell due to a bumper crop and prolonged sluggish demand. Manufacturers like B and G must now contend with the current environment.
Do bakers still use Crisco?
The debate between butter and shortening in baking is a topic of passion among bakers. Butter is often used in classic cakes, while shortening is used in pie crust, frosting, and sandwich cookie filling. Each baker brings unique needs and perspectives to the table, and it’s hoped that everyone will choose ingredients that best align with their personal goals. For more baking science, check out our post on cookie chemistry, which covers achieving the perfect cookie texture.
📹 Butter vs.Shortening: Which is BETTER? | Baking Basics
Butter vs Shortening, which is BETTER? The exact differences simply explained with side-by-side comparisons in cookies, …
I would say – a very powerful article, went way beyond expectations. I was perusal articles on how to make a pie crust, a lady said “shortening”, which I had never heard of, and that lead me to this article. This article has cooking, history, science, environmental impact, etymology, and everything — very well put together. It even explained what Crisco stood for. Amazing. Now I am subscriber.
I purchased Crisco for the first time in over 20 years, to make my grandmother’s pie crust. I had no knowledge they had changed their formula. When I opened it, I was immediately aware it was very different. I wasn’t happy. However, after your article I understand, and feel better about using it to get that perfect old timey pie crust.
I think you missed out Adam by not comparing shortening to lard or tallow. My grandmother used to do all her baking with either lard or suet and her stuff tasted amazing. I don’t cook much that calls for shortening, but if I do I use lard. I banished margarine and shortening from my house several years and I think stuff tastes better.
This is very interesting! When I was growing up we only used butter. I grew up in an Italian American community and we used butter or olive oil for everything. When a recipe called for shortening we just used butter and I thought it was the same thing. When I was 17 I took a cooking class in highschool and the teacher brought out the Crisco I was so grossed out 😂 I had never seen it before I didn’t want to eat the food!
Interesting. To this day we refer to certain alloys, particularly aluminum and brass for forging, as being “short” or “hot short”. If you smack aluminum too cold, it crumbles, too hot and it literally liquefies and squirts out from under the hammer, then crumbles, it has to be just right, or you can’t tool it. Same with brass on the cold side of things – it kinda looks like metallic gravel just laying there on the anvil after a few too many strikes.
My favorite thing of Adam’s, and what is I think, one of the most important things that sets him apart from other “food” websites, is his use of legitimate scientific sources and studies—which he always links in the description. There is just too much conjecture and flat out wrong information spouted ad-nauseam by people with major platforms, all used to scaremonger over certain foods and diets. Really is nice to watch something and be able to not only hear from researchers in the actual fields, but be given the sources to explore and learn and check for yourself.
Interesting about coronary problem since Crisco was used constantly from its beginnings to the 1960’s in my family. I would still pick Crisco if I had very little refrigerator space. Neither of my parents raised on baked goods and others using Crisco died of heart Problems or passed before their 85th birthdays.
My grandma used to make those peanut butter/Hershey kiss cookies every year and now that she’s passed, my aunt has taken up that responsibility. They’re so good–one of the highlights of Christmas for me. Wonder how similar the recipe is and if our grandmas got it from the same place. Maybe it was a classic in women’s magazines or cookbooks circa 1950.
Can you do a article on the health/science behind dairy free alternatives to butter? My son has recently developed a dairy allergy and with the absolute explosion of “healthy options” on the market these past few years I find myself more than a bit confused about what alternative is actually healthy and not a marketing ploy.
This article has finally answered why so many serving sizes are so off from what they should be, if anything is at “trace amounts” (under half a gram) so they drop the servings size to make it so. Once i had a single cookie where the serving size was “1/3” of the cookie. (Technically 1 cookie in a package that said 3 servings per package)
I’m old enough to remember when Crisco was the No. 1 cooking oil in the US. Every red-blooded American kitchen had a can of Crisco and it was used for everything. Olive oil was considered a fancy/smansy oil that was almost impossible to buy because no store stocked it. I grew up eating the old dirty Crisco and I somehow survived. 😁
Missed the boat on this one by a couple years I know, but I just found this website recently so cut me some slack. “Interesterified,” while it starts with the same letters as “interest,” comes from “Inter-” (between) and “Ester-” (a type of functional group in organic compounds), so you’d pronounce it more like “Inter-esterification.” Although it’s hard to tell with Dr. Berry’s British accent, that is also how she says it in the article.
I actually stumbled on your website recently and have been binge perusal lol…. and you got me hooked now for sure lol… we are from the same neck of the woods lol I am not from macon but am very near it I live in middle GA area and you caught my attention saying macon in this article!! So neat!! Your articles are very well thought out and you are very good with lighting and I tell u the truth that’s a serious challenge for me… I’m an “old woman” lol and I’m trying but having a really hard time but you kinda have given me some hope and a little kick in my butt to get in gear to do better and honestly I needed it I kinda have gotten busy with life and haven’t given my attention to it lately but some how seeing you doing this so well makes me wanna do better! Thank you so much for the much needed kick…. you’re so interesting!! I love educational articles done in an interesting way! This is an awesome website!
Last year, Crisco shortening was unavailable at any of the local groceries over Thanksgiving because of pandemic related supply chain issues. So across the extended family (each making do with a smaller single household Thanksgiving because of the pandemic), everyone’s grandma’s recipes’ pies all had butter instead of Crisco in the crusts. The difference was definitely noticed.
Shortening is the best fat to season cast iron with. Not quite as non stick as flax oil but much more durable and harder to scrape away or chip or dissolve with acids. I triple seasoned my cast iron skillet with it when I first got it and immediately was able to cook things with tomatoes and wine and vinegar without degrading the seasoning.
Wow This is an EYE OPENER….I started fryin up some corn tortillas w/ shortening instead of oil. and I think I’m hooked till death comes for me….they are so crispy and delicious. I told my self I’d quit after the first can….I’m on my second can…. WTF….. Pace picante is my New master…. Thanks Adam R..
My husband and I were in Australia for the holidays in 2004 and couldn’t find Crisco or anything resembling it. Our sons were coming to visit so they were going to bring us a small can. Apparently it freaked out customs 🛃. They couldn’t figure out what it was, but finally passed it. When we left another couple claimed it.
Adam Ragusea in this article you talk about shortening. You also mention margarine. You mentioned trans-fats and hydrogenated oils. A while ago I caught a program on The Discovery website that had a corner was on it wherein she showed the hearts of a person who lived on what I call Dow Chemical spreads that person died of a massive heartattack and it was heavily coated with undigested fat and one part was completely filled. She also showed the heart of a person of the same age who died in a car crash who lived in a more natural life and ate butter and lard. His heart and vains where completely clear and the tissue was its proper color. Had it not been for the car crash he would have lived a long life. She said in that program that the fats in butter and lard are completely digestible and are used to provide energy. Sence than I have completely dropped the use of Dow Chemical spreads. The human body is genetically wired to burn those fats that are found in butter and lard. Furthermore, I believe that the studies that came up with the notion that butter and lard was bad for us was funded by the big chemical companies. On the ingredients lists found on those Dow Chemical Spreads can’t be pronounced whereas on butter you see only milk and cream and you can easily make it at home you can do the same with lard. The people who are so concerned with climate change and global warming should push for an end of the use of palm seed oil alltogether. For, as you mentioned in this article the deforestation caused by the production of palm seed oil.
Yeah, I think I’m going with the alternative etymological history of ‘short’/’shortening’ that you mentioned second. my reasoning is probably flawed in some way but I just have some…some doubts…about our (Western Europeans’, that is) understanding of food nutrition in 1430 being sophisticated enough that we’d understand, on an intuitive level, the physical effects of longer/shorter gluten chains in cooking. “Intuitive,” because etymology and language evolution in general tends to be pushed forward by the lower classes, thus new words appear from the working people much more often than the owning people – and did the working population of 15th century Europe understand gluten chemistry intuitively enough to make a new word for a pastry ingredient that is based on the chemistry of the dish? As far as I knew, I thought they were still breathing in mercury fumes to do “alchemy,” and that was the closest we got to chemistry back then.
As someone who frequently reads food labels, I have completely cut out hydrogenated slash partially hydrogenated foods out of my diet. Now if I ever mistakingly ingest some from either not being able to read the label (restaurant) or just being at someone’s house and wanting to be polite and the food item had it, it made me bloat painfully and gave me terrible gas nearly everytime, some of the the worst smelling gas you could concoct. Imagine a smoothie of raw sewage rotten eggs and gasoline. (Yes that bad)
My mom used crisco when I was a small boy. Every Friday when my dad got paid we would go grocery shopping and she would buy Crisco. Fast forward 20 years later after my dad had triple bypass surgery for clogged arteries my mom switched brands. This is the point I would say to make a long story short but it’s too late lol.
Sometimes plant waxes are used (created as a byproduct when refining some oils like canola), to add to shortening, these are already very solupid, so that would cover most of it. But looking at the crisco tub in the article, I would say that that would either have to be only the byproduct wax or there is some kind of solid fat in there. It is too solid to be a mix of only wax and straight veg oil, that I can see.
Adam, do you know why Crisco was marketed with the phrase “It’s Digestible”? It always strikes me as ad odd phrase. I don’t know when they stopped using it, but it is a very popular Crisco advert on radio programs and magazines up into the early 1950’s. I’ve found articles that mention it, but none that can explain why they would market such a statement.
Another followup on the cookie recipe would be using regular oil and coconut oil. both have no water content and they can test if it’s important for the fat to be solid at room temperature. Coconut oil is solid at room temperature. If any of them produce the same or better results, you can avoid the more questionable shortening.
For any Europeans out there, the closest thing we have to shortening is dairy-free margarine. If a recipe asks for shortening, then substitute it with the purest margarine in your supermarket (you can check the ingredients percentage at the back – you want at least 70% oil). In the UK, this would be Stork. I find it odd that margarine is always absent from American cooking articles and recipes, when in Europe at least, buttermilk margarine is by far the most popular ‘yellow fat’. And even when butter is chosen, it is usually a form of ‘spreadable butter’, which is about 80% butter, 20% oil.
I used interesterified incorrectly a few years back. I like my usage better. My husband asked me why I watched paranormal investigative things. I said because I’m interesterified by it. Interested and terrified. How, I assume, they actually named this new process. They were interested in finding a new fatty substance for cooking and terrified at the possible new horrible outcome that would ensue.
Crisco is the best fat to use to season your cast iron pan. For some reason, people will try all sorts of goofy alternatives rather than use inexpensive, vegetarian, trans-fat free Crisco. As far as eating it, the things you use it in, pie crusts and cookies, are things you shouldn’t be eating that much of anyway. I make at most a couple of pie crusts a year using Crisco. If I make brownies from a mix, I’ll grease the pan with Crisco, another infrequent use. I don’t worry about it.
Crisco has been used in my large very extended mothers family for years. My fathers side used mostly butter. Only problems on mothers side is an inherited heart valve problem but not heart attack caused by clogged arteries. Fathers side many with heart attacks from clogged arteries. Mothers side lives into their eighties or nineties. Fathers side mostly only into their sixties or seventies. Aunts and uncles still alive on mothers side…five out of 11 ( 1 in his sixties, 3 in their seventies, 1 in her eighties). On my fathers side 0 out of four ( only one made it to 80’s, 1 to 70’s, other two in their 60’s). I’ll stick to crisco.
8:54 so to further explain based on what I know. So basically a fat molecule has 2main parts 1)the glycerol which is the backbone 2)the fatty acids. Each fat has 3fatty acids and interesterification essentially shuffles those 3 around, whether it is shuffling in it’s own molecules or swapping the acids with other fat molecules. Now you might be wondering why they have to do that. Its because most vegetable oils contains a high percentage of “unsaturated fat” which is good for your health and all but its not solid. So interesterification can shuffle the fatty acids and swap out the unsaturated fat in one molecule with another saturated fat in another molecule making one “more saturated molecule”(more solid) and another “less saturated molecule”(liquid). -Interesterification is better than PARTIAL hydrogenation because partial hydrogenation makes TRANS fat which is bad for your health. -Interesterification is better than FULLY hydrogenation because fully hydrogenation is 100% saturated fat which makes the end result too solid to be pliable. So knowing those two bullet points they just fully hydrogenate some fat and swap those “too saturated” acids into the normal liquid fat to make magic…. Atleast thats how I understand it
Other than the overuse of palm oils which have been linked to environmental ills as well as other possible negative health side effects, shortening holds one major drawback to its use in baked goods in that it has a higher melting point than butter, which happens to be just a tad bit higher than body temperature. This means the shortening doesn’t fully melt off your tongue as you eat it and your body has to do the work chemically removing the coating that is left on your tongue. While this alone isn’t that bad, it does render your taste slightly less potent (imagine a very thin condom on your tongue just after eating a bite of something with margarine or shortening in it.) Just another reason to reach for butter than shortening if you can help it. Cheers!
Damn. trying to find the hershey episode. But, this info is relevant to this “fats” episode. hershey uses something called.. ok this: A: If you buy mass-market chocolate candy, you might spot PGPR in the ingredients list. It stands for polyglycerol polyricinoleate (no wonder companies use the abbreviation). Consisting of glycerol and fatty acids typically derived from castor beans, PGPR is an emulsifier that reduces viscosity, thereby enhancing flow properties in chocolate production.
“Cottonseed had little use.” This is incorrect cottenseed oil was heavily used in candle making. When electric lighting and gas mantle showed up they severely diminished the candle industry. Making cottonseed oil suddenly super cheap. This is why crisco came about. Cottonseed oil was super cheap and Johnson and Johnson who made candles and soap was interested. Crisco was invested as a way to use J&J’s huge stockpiles cottonseed oil. The first batches of crisco were hard as rocks and could bounce.
Denmark (where I live) was the first country to restrict trans fats, with a limit of 2% of total fats destined for human consumption. This limit is set on the ingredients rather than the final product, so it’s the only country where one can eat less than 1 gram of trans fats in a day, by solely eating processed foods. It was hypothesized that this ban/restriction would reduce ischemic heart disease by 50% after 20 years, but it was found to have reduced the number of heart attacks by 70% after 10 years.
I know this article is not about palm oil, but as a Malaysian, I need to say this. Oil palm trees were brought to Malaya by the British. They set up estates on our land and brought in Indian labour to manage the estates for them. Good. They made it a thing in our country, and now the Caucasians are saying that palm trees are bad for the environment or rainforest ecosystem? Let me say this. Banning palm oils products are seriously impacting our economy. Estates workers are losing their job because of this. Environmental protection is one thing, but if you live in Malaysia, you will know how much tropical rainforest we have left in our country (a lot). Anyone can tell me how bad it is for the rainforest but I’m sorry, you don’t live in Malaysia. We were once told that corn oil is great, but I can’t stress this enough, they are also relatively expensive. We do have cornfields, but the palm oil industry in Malaysia is much more mature. We are getting a really good yield of oil after cross-breeding 2 different species of oil palm trees. With palm oil, we can not only have cheap cooking oil but also other products like soap and bio-diesel. I don’t blame you for this. Some environmental extremist and some liberal media (I’m neither left nor right, I’m in the centre) is giving us trouble and spreading misinformation. I agree that oil palm estates are affecting the environment, but not to the extent of uncontrollable deforestation. Something can still be done without people losing their jobs for the sake of the environment.
I just pour my bacon drippings (smoky lard) through a coffee filter and collect them for cooking. I only use a little bit and everything tastes great. Great stuff for frying eggs, etc. Forget all the mono trans partially hydrogenated etherified, blah, blah. Go with what tastes the best, and there’s nothing that tastes better than filtered bacon drippings. Popcorn made with this is unbelievably yummy.
Fun fact: The fact that back in Old Europe (Sunflower and rapeseed are new world plants) there was no non-animal fat or oil. So Jews (who are called “not to mix meat and milk” by their religious dietary laws) needed a fat that wasn’t butter to be used in meat dishes. Lard was out for obvious reasons, but bovine fat also had issues… So they started overfeeding poultry creating foie gras in the process…
For those who don’t know Shortening was called that for the number of years it shortens from your life. “Vegetable oil” is made from highly processed seeds, soy corn rice and other non animal products many of which are utterly inedible and even toxic . The removal of trans fats only slows down the shortening of your life, polyunsaturated fat is toxic and harmful causing inflammation and weakness in cell walls promoting rapid ageing, cancer and Susceptibility to infections like covid. Not all dietary fats have their downsides. Saturated animal fats are utterly harmless and don’t contribute to any disease or conditions on their own, some are even healing and are a good source for essential vitamins minerals and fatty acids necessary for life. Mono unsaturated fats seem to strengthen cell walls improve elasticity of tissues especially arteries and are also a good source of essential substances. Nut oils and plant oils like olive, palm and coconut and possibly castor bean oil are not vegetable oils. Peanut oil soy oil sunflower safflower linenseed linseed cotton seed rice bran and corn oils and anything that requires any more processing than just squeezing is likely to be toxic. Vegetable oil is nothing but toxic.
Shortening is better used mixed with butter than in place of butter. When baking a cake, if you use all butter in certain recipes, you’ll have flavorful, densed, heavy cake. If you mix a few small peices of shortening in with the butter, its can make your cake very light and fluffy. But don’t add too much, your cake will be light still but dry and crumbly too. Also, they mix well in butter cream recipes. All butter melts entirely too fast, all shortening has an awful, terrible taste that leaves a film. But they mix exceptionally well together.
leaf fat (lard, rendered from pigs around the lower organs) is what many pastry chefs prefer. It is a natural product. Some claim that once you use leaf fat rendered lard that you will never prefer butter to make certain pastry items such as pie crust. I have never actually made a pie crust with butter and have always used retail shortening so now I will have to try butter and leaf fat to see how it all works out. I have used lard in other cooking and baking and it has performed well.
Great article. We can’t get shortening easily here in Australia. The veg shortening commonly use here is Copha and that requires refrigeration so any recipe that require ” room temp” shortening is a problem. We don get crisco here in supermarkets, but can buy it on some sites inline. So butter for me.
The biggest con of using shortening is the hydrogenation process that it goes through to give it that “shelf life” that you’re talking about. It is absolutely horrible for your heart health. You could almost sum it up by saying the shelflife that it gives on the shelf, also gives a “shelf life” in your arteries. In other words it cause plaque buildup.
I also prefer butter as well. I only use vegetable shortening (Crisco brand) when the recipe calls for it but otherwise, I use butter. If a recipe calls for stick margarine, I substitute butter instead because I feel that it is better and that using margarine would undermine the quality of baked goods.
Thanks for the clarification between the 2, I am making some short cake and it calls for shorting but I was going to sub butter but I wanted to get and idea what the possible outcome would be. Ill stick with butter I did not think about those allergic to dairy or vegans. Ill keep that in mind if I am baking for those people I do not know that well and will ask ahead if there is a preference they would require.
I’m making 15 dozen cookies for an event a few days in advance. I have been using butter, but the cookies become very hard within a couple days even ziplock bagged. Will switching out some or all the butter to something like butter flavored crisco keep the cookies softer and chewy for the few days between when we have to make them and when they get distributed?
Interesting article! there are different types of shortening with different processing and ingredients so they may not all taste and feel the same and I have some from WM that melts below 118 F. what is your opinion on butter flavored crisco? a lot of cookie bakers use that. I dont know what its melting point is but a lot of bakers seem to use it.
Trans fat is hype. My family ate crisco and fried chicken like the only thing around. Lard and bacon grease on the stove all of time. Butter sat out. Parents and grandparents all different ages. No heart attacks. 84,77. 94, 80+. It’s hard to believe anyone anymore. I think how my family ate fresh from the garden. Canned food. Lived long.
Hi, thanks for your article, only half of a decade later I found this, the FDA proposed banning Shortening in 2015, Butter 🧈 on the other hand, made the way people did for millennium is a tried and true staple, unlike “shortening”. That imo even with the FDA “ban” proposal in 2015 I am of the opinion that Shortening is named “shortening ” Bc by using it to put into your bodies you are literally shortening your life on earth with the as I endearingly call it, plastic oil(aka artery clogging. Also hydrogen-bomb-ated oil or weaponized oil.