# Recipe ingredient question: what is shortening? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 3, 2005, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758 "2005-01-03T00:23:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758/1 "2005-01-03T00:23:09Z")
I’m about to start cooking and the recipe (actually \*\*GingerOfTheNorth’s \*\* one for butter tarts) calls for an ingredient with which I’m not familiar - _shortening_. What is it? I don’t even have an inkling of the type of shop one would go to in order to buy it. It’s part of the recipe for the tart pastry. In the same context, most other pastry recipes that I have used simply call for butter. Would this be an acceptable alternative? ---
**Author:** ![Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/57b2e6/32.png) [@Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758/2 "2005-01-03T00:25:40Z")
Traditionally? Shortening is lard. Crisco. I’m not a baker, so I’ll leave it to someone else to tell you whether butter will work as well. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_in\_second\_hand\_clothing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9d8465/32.png) [@wolf\_in\_second\_hand\_clothing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_in_second_hand_clothing)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758/3 "2005-01-03T00:26:16Z")
I believe it’s a vegetable oil solid, like crisco. The distinction between shortening and lard is that lard is animal fat. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758/4 "2005-01-03T00:27:32Z")
[Shortening](http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/shortening) is fat, so yes, butter will do very nicely. Better than what you might use in the US, which would be Crisco, which is a hydrogenated (solidified) vegetable oil. Not good for you, but still ubiquitous for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Bren\_Cameron\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@Bren\_Cameron\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bren_Cameron_1)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758/5 "2005-01-03T00:28:40Z")
Shortening is crisco. You find it in the baking aisle, near the vegetable oils. But if you don’t want to make the trip, you can almost certainly use butter. I pretty much always do, and get perfectly fine results. ---
**Author:** ![Mirage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Mirage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirage)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758/6 "2005-01-03T00:33:33Z")
> [@](#): > > Shortening is fat, so yes, butter will do very nicely. Shortening is a fat, however it has a much lower boiling point than butter and so it vaporizes during the baking, leaving an air pocket and flaky crust but not much noticeable oil left behind. This is how pie crusts get their flaky texture. If the recipe calls for shortening, you could probably use butter or oil, however the end result will be denser and more oily. ---
**Author:** ![Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rex_fenestrarum/32/7265_2.png) [@Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rex_Fenestrarum)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758/7 "2005-01-03T00:40:49Z")
Listen to **Mirage**. Shortening and butter are NOT the same and any resulting pies made with butter will not be as “flaky” as you would want them to be. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758/8 "2005-01-03T00:58:09Z")
Thanks everyone. It may not be specifically what the recipe calls for, but I’m going to try butter anyway. It’s too hot to walk to the shops to buy this crisco stuff. I don’t recall ever seeing it in the supermarket and it sounds awful anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758/9 "2005-01-03T09:02:37Z")
Well, it appears I’m late to the party. How did the tarts turn out? Anyway, maybe the following will be useful for next time. As others have mentioned, shortening is vegetable fat that stays in solid form at room temperature, and can be interchanged with lard in most recipes. Evidently Crisco is [not available in Australia](http://www.smuckers.com/fc/brands/default.asp?), but I believe you guys have something called Copha, which should be a suitable substitute (this is based on what a number of websites said – I have no first-hand experience in this matter, and somehow the substitution doesn’t appear to work [the other way around](http://whatscookingamerica.net/Q-A/copha.htm)). Is the shortening used for the tart shell? If so, butter is not the best fat for it. In addition to what **Mirage** said above, food scientist Shirley Corriher tells us that the water content and melting characterists matter: > [@](#): > > Fats…create flakiness by serving as a spacer between layers of dough…Solid fats that are 100 percent fat, like shortening and lard, make flakier pastry than butter or margarine, which are only about 80 percent fat… > > The texture and the melting characteristics of the fat are very important in creating flakiness – a fat must remain solid in the hot oven long enough for the dough on either side of it to begin to set…Fats that hold their shape over a wide range of temperatures, such as shortening…hold up well and create flakiness more easily. > > [Corriher, Shirley, _CookWise_, ©1997, pp. 103-104.] As far as Crisco goes, the company has responded to public concerns over partial hydrogenation and now offers [a shortening with no trans-fats](http://www.crisco.com/whatsnew/0_grams_0304.htm). _Cook’s Illustrated_ magazine just publised tasting results for it in their January 2005 issue, and they found that it performed nearly on par when compared against regular Crisco. ---
**Author:** ![Ponster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponster/32/17081_2.png) [@Ponster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponster)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758/10 "2005-01-03T12:42:34Z")
Here in France we don’t get shortening so when I need to use it, am I better off using butter or lard ? ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758/11 "2005-01-03T13:01:15Z")
Lard is definately the classic for flaky pie crusts. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Lao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dr.Lao](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Lao)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758/12 "2005-01-03T13:41:21Z")
> [@Mirage](#): > > Shortening is a fat, however it has a much lower boiling point than butter and so it vaporizes during the baking, leaving an air pocket and flaky crust but not much noticeable oil left behind. This is how pie crusts get their flaky texture. Baking temperatures are well below the boiling points of either butter or shortening and there is no appreciable loss of fat due to evaporation during baking. Shortening does melt at a higher temperature and contains no water (butter is about 20% water), both of which affect the texture of the baked goods they’re used in. Thin layers of shortening or butter in a pastry separate the dough into layers that give pastries their flakey texture. Since shortening stays solid longer, the layers have more time to set before they are forced together by the melting of the wall separating them, resulting in a flakier texture with shortening. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Lao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dr.Lao](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Lao)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758/13 "2005-01-03T13:42:39Z")
> [@Ponster](#): > > Here in France we don’t get shortening so when I need to use it, am I better off using butter or lard ? Lard can pretty much be used interchangible with shortening. With butter, it depends on the recipe. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758/14 "2005-01-03T22:22:19Z")
> [@Earthling](#): > > Well, it appears I’m late to the party. How did the tarts turn out? \*\*Earthling \*\* - the tarts were fine with butter in the pastry instead of shortening. ---
**Author:** ![Primaflora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758/15 "2005-01-04T04:33:37Z")
It’s in the margarine section of the supermarket – either called copha or cremelta. It’s that nasty white slime you use to make white christmas or chocolate crackles. Using solid white vegetable fat in pastry is very much a US thing and you don’t see it in our recipes much. I always just sub butter but one day I’m going to trial copha and see what difference it does make. ---
**Author:** ![Bren\_Cameron\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@Bren\_Cameron\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bren_Cameron_1)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758/16 "2005-01-05T02:24:24Z")
I’ll be honest, I almost never use shortening. I use butter. And my pie crusts come out just fine. I’m not arguing the chemistry thing–I don’t doubt that shortening crusts are a bit flakier, but honestly “flaky” isn’t the be-all and end-all of crust for me. The discussion about flaky crust kind of reminds me about a bit in Joy of Cooking that read something like “once a potato loses its mealiness, it can never be restored.” My reaction–thank Mithras! But this attitude of mine isn’t shared. A friend’s grandmother once described eating a well-cooked potato as “like eating a mouthful of flour.” And she meant that as a compliment. Bleah. I don’t despise flaky pastry the way I hate dusty potatoes, but I also don’t think it’s worth making an extra trip to the store for a slightly flakier pie crust. For most recipes, IMHO, butter will do the trick nicely. I’m glad the tarts came out okay. And not the least bit surprised. ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758/17 "2005-01-05T03:19:55Z")
> [@Primaflora](#): > > It’s in the margarine section of the supermarket – either called copha or cremelta. It’s that nasty white slime you use to make white christmas or chocolate crackles. > > Using solid white vegetable fat in pastry is very much a US thing and you don’t see it in our recipes much. I always just sub butter but one day I’m going to trial copha and see what difference it does make. I used Copha in all my American Christmas cookie recipes that called for shortening. It worked well, but it is much harder (and harder on my mixer) than Crisco is. Crisco is more the texture of butter and mixes pretty easily. Copha was very solid…I destroyed my mixer and had to get another one! But the outcome was good - authentic American cookies! ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recipe-ingredient-question-what-is-shortening/282758/18 "2005-01-05T04:02:34Z")
> [@Primaflora](#): > > It’s in the margarine section of the supermarket – either called copha or cremelta. It’s that nasty white slime you use to make white christmas or chocolate crackles. Thanks **Primaflora**. I’ve often wondered whether copha had any other uses. I thought its sole purpose was to make those ghastly greasy chocolate crackles.