Fats and oils: shortening (2024)

FAQs

Is Crisco healthy or unhealthy? ›

Due to the recent ban on trans fats, shortening is now trans fat-free. However, shortening is still highly processed, and the interesterification process now used to create spreadable shortening may have its own set of health risks. Additionally, shortening is high in calories and offers no nutritional benefits.

Made from vegetable oils — often soybean, cottonseed, or palm oils — vegetable shortening is a vegetarian alternative to lard. Introduced as Crisco to consumers in 1911, it became a popular "healthy" choice, though research now shows there isn't too much difference between the two when it comes to nutrition.

According to The Spruce Eats, there are four common types of vegetable shortenings: solid, liquid, all-purpose, and cake or icing shortening.

Vegetable oils like canola and olive oil may be a healthier alternative to shortening because they're lower in saturated fats.

Since Crisco is made from soybean and palm oil, it's higher in polyunsaturated fat, whereas butter, an animal fat, is mostly saturated fat. Butter is also higher in cholesterol compared to Crisco. But that doesn't make Crisco healthier than butter. The FDA recently banned trans fat, so Crisco is now trans-fat-free.

Which One Should I Use in Cookies? Basically, cookies made with butter spread more and are flatter and crisper if baked long enough. However, they are more flavorful than cookies made with shortening. Cookies made with shortening bake up taller and are more tender, but aren't as flavorful.

Baked goods made with shortening are typically softer and more tender than those made with butter. They also tend to be slightly taller, as it has a higher melting point and doesn't spread as much.

Swap one for the other in recipes. If you want to add additional flavor to the dish, lard is the right choice. Shortening is ideal for its neutral flavor, many professional bakers use it for icing.

The healthiest oil to cook with is olive oil. It's versatile, being used in everything from frying to finishing. It's also rich in healthy fats, antioxidants, and polyphenols, all of which have shown protective effects against cancer and liver, heart, and neurodegenerative diseases (27, 28).

Used as a cooking fat for centuries, lard fell out of favor when hydrogenated vegetable shortening was invented in the early 20th century. We now know that hydrogenated fats, also called trans fats, may increase the risk of heart disease.

Can Crisco go bad? ›

Information. The Food Marketing Institute's FoodKeeper recommends storing unopened solid shortening, such as Crisco shortening, at room temperature for 8 months. After opening, store at room temperature for 3 months for best quality.

Shortening is made by hydrogenating vegetable oil. Lard and shortening have a higher fat content compared to about 80% for butter and margarine.

Yes, ghee can be used as a substitute for shortening in baking recipes. Ghee is a type of clarified butter. It is made from unsalted milk butter, and in the process of making it, the milk solid content of dairy butter (lactose and casein) gets removed.

Lard, margarine and vegetable shortening such as Crisco are the most well known and most called for in recipes. Because butter is up to 20% water, it isn't the best shortening out there, but in some recipes, it is used as shortening. Shortening's job is to make doughs short.

Health Impacts of Crisco

Trans fats have a chemical structure that our bodies have trouble recognizing, and they create free radicals in the body. They are linked to a number of health risks, including: cardiovascular diseases.

Crisco® all-vegetable shortening will make your cakes moist, pie crusts flaky, and cookies soft and fluffy, with 0g of trans fat per serving*. One look, and you'll see why we've got butter beat.

When Crisco launched in 1911, it did things differently. Like other brands, it was made from cottonseed. But it was also a new kind of fat – the world's first solid shortening made entirely from a once-liquid plant oil.

Spoiler alert: Olive oil is one of the healthiest oils for frying, but only if you use it correctly. And there are other great options—including soybean oil and peanut oil as well.