Nancy Young wrote:
> "Ophelia" > wrote
>
>> "Nancy Young" > wrote
>
>>> I've seen recipes where Crisco is used rather than butter, in
>>> chocolate chip cookies for instance. And, although I am not a
>>> baker, I don't think of lard as something you'd use in making
>>> bread, which is what we're talking about here.
>> Hi Nancy, I often use lard in breads.
>
> Yeah, I've looked at a lot of bread recipes, I don't think it's
> common here. The baker types will correct me if I'm wrong.
> I don't mean, does someone have this one recipe for bread
> that uses lard, I mean in general. Always seems to be butter.
>
> Regardless, I've given up any effort trying to explain to her what
> Crisco is, or what she might use instead. It's a solid vegetable fat.
>
> nancy
>
>

Nancy,

Because of the commercial value of labeling baked goods with "all
vegetable shortening" or "no animal fats," etc., I think most larger
commercial bakeries have gotten away from lard over the last half
century that the American Heart Association has been hammering their
anti-cholesterol messaging. It's only in the last few years that we've
started taking a second look at the logic. (There is not necessarily a
direct causal relationship between consuming animal fats and developing
high cholesterol; it's more complicated than that.) And so now it's
trans-fats that are the bad guys. If you'll recall, they used to be the
good guys.

However, a lot of smaller bakeries (diners with homemade pies, for
example, and whatever neighborhood bakeries may still be left) still use
lard in piecrusts, because you really can't beat it for that. Lard is
also the fat of choice for greasing bread pans and baking sheets,
assuming it's not a kosher bakery. As a bread ingredient, though, I'd
agree with you that US bakers, for the most part, don't use lard and
haven't in a long time.

Dick