# Mama's little baby loves shortening--but what does it shorten? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 6, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-little-baby-loves-shortening-but-what-does-it-shorten/523901 "2010-01-06T15:08:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-little-baby-loves-shortening-but-what-does-it-shorten/523901/1 "2010-01-06T15:08:51Z")
Shortening is a saturated fat used in baking. But where does the name come from? Does it make something shorter? ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-little-baby-loves-shortening-but-what-does-it-shorten/523901/2 "2010-01-06T15:11:57Z")
From [dictionary.com](http://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.” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-little-baby-loves-shortening-but-what-does-it-shorten/523901/3 "2010-01-06T15:12:11Z")
[Shortening](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=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? . ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-little-baby-loves-shortening-but-what-does-it-shorten/523901/4 "2010-01-06T15:20:20Z")
You stopped singing too soon – shortening bread! [http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,164,148166-250202,00.html](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. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-little-baby-loves-shortening-but-what-does-it-shorten/523901/5 "2010-01-06T15:26:26Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > In the song, what is the ‘lead’ that is put on? > . 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. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-little-baby-loves-shortening-but-what-does-it-shorten/523901/6 "2010-01-06T15:28:49Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > [Shortening](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=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? > . [lead = lid of the skillet or pan.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQmSlxWcd-k&feature=fvw) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-little-baby-loves-shortening-but-what-does-it-shorten/523901/7 "2010-01-06T15:34:39Z")
I suspected that, but wasn’t sure. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-little-baby-loves-shortening-but-what-does-it-shorten/523901/8 "2010-01-06T18:09:59Z")
Thanks a lot, guys. Now I can’t get rid of that song . . . sung by Ethel Mertz. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-little-baby-loves-shortening-but-what-does-it-shorten/523901/9 "2010-01-06T18:16:34Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > You stopped singing too soon – shortening bread! 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 Ruth](http://www.madcatmusic.net/)of Ann Arbor does a killer version of that tune. ---
**Author:** ![pan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@pan1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pan1)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-little-baby-loves-shortening-but-what-does-it-shorten/523901/10 "2010-01-06T18:31:27Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > “Mama’s little baby love short’nin’, short’nin’, mama’s little baby loves short’nin’ bread!” I know this song as: “Mama’s little baby loves rabbit, rabbit. Mama’s little baby loves rabbit stew.” ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-little-baby-loves-shortening-but-what-does-it-shorten/523901/11 "2010-01-06T18:32:30Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Thanks a lot, guys. Now I can’t get rid of that song . . . sung by Ethel Mertz. Unfortunately I can’t get rid of a whale … ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-little-baby-loves-shortening-but-what-does-it-shorten/523901/12 "2010-01-06T18:48:09Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Shortening is a saturated fat used in baking. But where does the name come from? Does it make something shorter? Your life expectancy. ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-little-baby-loves-shortening-but-what-does-it-shorten/523901/13 "2010-01-06T20:26:51Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-little-baby-loves-shortening-but-what-does-it-shorten/523901/14 "2010-01-06T20:37:38Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > “Mama’s little baby love short’nin’, short’nin’, mama’s little baby loves short’nin’ bread!” > [@pan1](#): > > I know this song as: > > “Mama’s little baby loves rabbit, rabbit. Mama’s little baby loves rabbit stew.” Obligatory _Prairie Home Companion_ reference: “Mama’s little baby loves rhubarb, rhubarb” … [Homer]and so on[/Homer]. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-little-baby-loves-shortening-but-what-does-it-shorten/523901/15 "2010-01-06T21:56:01Z")
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). ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-little-baby-loves-shortening-but-what-does-it-shorten/523901/16 "2010-01-06T23:28:45Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > Unfortunately I can’t get rid of a whale … Try dynamite. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-little-baby-loves-shortening-but-what-does-it-shorten/523901/17 "2010-01-07T00:12:44Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Obligatory _Prairie Home Companion_ reference: > > “Mama’s little baby loves rhubarb, rhubarb” … [Homer]and so on[/Homer]. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Mq08wFhAGgc/hqdefault.jpg "Bebop-a-rebop Rhubarb Pie - A Prairie Home Companion") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq08wFhAGgc)