On 2014-06-18, Janet Bostwick > wrote:

> Don't forget about the benefits of lard compared to butter and/or
> vegetable oil products. Less saturated fat compared to butter. More
> monounsaturated fats. Less polyunsaturated fats . . . I've never
> used margarine except for that one taste of the Crisco-like stuff. I
> always figured butter and lately lard are natural products and I'll go
> with that.

But, margerine and Crisco are heavily hydrogenated oils and the
hydrogination process turns the unsaturated fats into trans fats, which
are suspected to be even worse than other saturated fats.

http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-hydrogenated-oil.htm

I've recently been given about a cup of this:

http://www.spectrumorganics.com/spec...ic-shortening/

It's palm oil based and is used by the organic baker, in town. Looks
jes like Crisco. I've yet to try it in my butter/shortening pie crust
dough, as it's been too warm to bake. I'll let you know how it turns
out when I get around to baking another pie.

nb