# Lard vs Crisco **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 25, 2016, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lard-vs-crisco/753093 "2016-04-25T15:11:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lard-vs-crisco/753093/1 "2016-04-25T15:11:59Z")
If you’re baking which would you use, Lard or Crisco or some other option? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lard-vs-crisco/753093/2 "2016-04-25T15:14:58Z")
Lard. Unless I don’t have lard and I do have Crisco, like right now, but I’m not baking anything. To get a good glaze on chocolate you can’t beat paraffin anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lard-vs-crisco/753093/3 "2016-04-25T15:24:37Z")
My mother, my mother-in-law, my other mother-in-law and just about everyone I knew from their generation claimed that lard was better than Crisco for baking. I very seldom saw them actually have lard in their homes, though, while they always seemed to have Crisco. I don’t think it was a health thing – perhaps cost or freshness or some other factor that made keeping lard around impractical. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lard-vs-crisco/753093/4 "2016-04-25T15:26:12Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > My mother, my mother-in-law, my other mother-in-law and just about everyone I knew from their generation claimed that lard was better than Crisco for baking. I very seldom saw them actually have lard in their homes, though, while they always seemed to have Crisco. I don’t think it was a health thing – perhaps cost or freshness or some other factor that made keeping lard around impractical. I know it is oftentimes harder to find Lard than Crisco. I usually have to check the Hispanic isle for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e47774/32.png) [@quiltguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lard-vs-crisco/753093/5 "2016-04-25T16:22:59Z")
Lard DOES make a flakier pastry, but many people choose alternatives to get away from the cholesterol and saturated-ness. If I’m baking I’ll use butter, or a butter/margarine combo, depending on what I’m baking. Crisco is basically white margarine, the major difference is the fats they use to make it. When margarine first came on the scene(30’s? 40’s?) the manufacturers included a capsule filled with colorant, which was kneaded into the whitish fat, in order to mimic the appearance of butter. For some considerable time margarine was unavailable in some of the bigger dairy states, who obviously wished to protect the sales of real butter. ---
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lard-vs-crisco/753093/6 "2016-04-25T16:26:48Z")
Butter. Can’t retract my poll vote for olive oil, which I picked based on the poll question “which do you cook with?” For baking, butter. I don’t keep lard or crisco laying around the house, and can’t remember ever buying either. ---
**Author:** ![Lowdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Lowdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lowdown)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lard-vs-crisco/753093/7 "2016-04-25T16:31:23Z")
Lard. Butter if I’m going for heavy. Never Crisco. Margarine never enters the house. Lard is where it’s at for pie crust. I never use anything else. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lard-vs-crisco/753093/8 "2016-04-25T16:42:25Z")
Where’s the multiple-choice button? We often use butter, shortening, lard, olive oil, plain vegetable oil and sometimes bacon fat when we cook. It really depends on what we’re making; they’re not all interchangeable. For baking, lard makes great pie crusts and pastry crusts, as does shortening. But nobody wants to put lard in a pizza crust; that’s what olive oil’s for. And similarly, if you’re baking bread, you probably want plain old vegetable oil or butter. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lard-vs-crisco/753093/9 "2016-04-25T18:12:48Z")
For baking, it’s generally butter, but it kind of depends on what is being baked. I make more cookies than I do pies, but even pie crust benefits from butter. For other cooking, it again depends on what is being cooked. ---
**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lard-vs-crisco/753093/10 "2016-04-25T18:51:04Z")
If you’re worried about lard, just use Lard Light. Only 99% of the calories of regular lard!