at Tue, 21 Oct 2003 00:10:12 GMT in <EP_kb.79124$uJ2.32062
@fe3.columbus.rr.com>, (Vox Humana) wrote :

>
>"levelwave" > wrote in message
...
>> Yukon Cornelius wrote:
>>
>> > Most recipes for baked goods include some kind of shortening. But no
>one ever
>> > says what it does.
>> ...
>> It's a cheaper substitute for butter...
>>
>Butter is a type of shortening.

Technically, yes, if you're using "shortening" in the generic sense, that
is, any fat that shortens dough (generally the fats that remain solid at
room temperature.

However, in the USA, at least, the term "shortening" has come to mean
specificially the hardened, deodourized vegetable fats produced through
hydrogenation, especially Crisco, the most common retail brand. Certainly
that's what most people think of. If you were to make a recipe that called
for "shortening", expecting the users to choose whatever fat of, say, lard,
butter, and Crisco, that they pleased, you'd probably end up with the vast
majority (possibly 80% if not higher), using Crisco, not mostly because it
was the cheapest, but because they assumed that's what the recipe called
for, and most people aren't going to tinker with a recipe by substituting
fats that they didn't think the recipe allowed.

Personally I think this is a bit of a shame, because I'd like to see more
recipes say, in spite of the longer verbiage, "lard, butter, or vegetable
shortening" so that people could choose the tradeoff that best suited their
purpose: lard for best texture, butter for best flavour, vegetable
shortening for lowest cost.

It's also important to note, (as VH undoubtedly knows but the OP may not),
that lard, butter, and vegetable shortening are NOT 1-for-1
interchangeable. Butter is more challenging to use in pie crusts, yields
crisper results in cookies, denser, richer cakes, etc. Lard makes almost
foolproof pie crusts, rather fragile, crumbly cookies, *extremely* delicate
but strange-tasting cakes, etc. Shortening makes good but a bit pasty and
bland pie crust, puffy, soft cookies, tall, light, springy cakes, etc. And
you need to adjust the exact proportions of each fat somewhat.

--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)