Shortening is a saturated fat used in baking. But where does the name come from? Does it make something shorter?
From dictionary.com:
“butter or other fat used in baking,” 1796, from shorten “make crumbly” (1733), from short in the secondary sense of “easily crumbled” (c.1430), which perhaps arose via the notion of “having short fibers.”
Shortening
“butter or other fat used in baking,” 1796, from shorten “make crumbly” (1733), from short in the secondary sense of “easily crumbled” (c.1430), which perhaps arose via the notion of “having short fibers.” This is also the sense behind shortbread (1801) and shortcake (1594).
In the song, what is the ‘lead’ that is put on?
.
You stopped singing too soon – shortening bread!
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,164,148166-250202,00.html
A “short bread” as opposed to a yeast-based long-rising bread.
Biscuits, cornbread, muffins, hoecakes, etc. are all short bread.
LID.
“Put on the skillet/
Put on the lid . . .”
Shortning bread can be cooked on top of a stove . . . hoecakes, for instance, which are sometimes actually cooked on the lid of a pan or a pan flipped over upside down.
It may be confusing to people not from the Southern United States because we can turn “lid” into two syllables, y’all. 
I suspected that, but wasn’t sure.
Thanks a lot, guys. Now I can’t get rid of that song . . . sung by Ethel Mertz.
Well, it would be quite a title if I wrote,
“Mama’s little baby love short’nin’, short’nin’, mama’s little baby loves short’nin’ bread!”
P.S. Madcat Ruthof Ann Arbor does a killer version of that tune.
I know this song as:
“Mama’s little baby loves rabbit, rabbit. Mama’s little baby loves rabbit stew.”
Unfortunately I can’t get rid of a whale …
Your life expectancy.
Shorter live, but happier life.
My biscuits make me happy. Dead easy to make (once you understand them), delicious, and it’s one of the things my daughter (4yo) helps me make in the kitchen. Good Daddy Daughter bonding time, and that’s worth any number of years at the end. 
Recipe/process (southerners may not want to look):
Self rising flour. Pour some in a bowl. Bigger pile = more biscuits.
Butter flavored Crisco, and COLD butter. Enough until it looks right.
Milk/cream added and mixed until it looks sticky enough. Stir as little as possible.
More self rising flour to work on the board.
Pat, fold, pat into a 3/4" sheet.
Punch, and lay on a baking sheet. Each should touch.
Cook 425F until golden - 10 minutes or so, and start checking.
Obligatory Prairie Home Companion reference:
“Mama’s little baby loves rhubarb, rhubarb” … [Homer]and so on[/Homer].
For a more technical answer to the OP, shortening produces shorter gluten strands in the dough, and thus less rising (as is desired for tender, flaky products like biscuits and pie dough).
Try dynamite.
