Butter vs. Shortening: What's the Difference? (2024)

FAQs

Butter vs. Shortening: What's the Difference? ›

Butter contains 80% butterfat and about 20% (naturally occurring) water. Shortening is 100% hydrogenated vegetable oil and contains no water.

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.

While shortening can be used as a replacement, it lacks the same depth of flavor and deliciousness that butter provides. So if you're looking for a truly flavorful cookie, we recommend sticking with butter. Plus, butter is also much easier to work with than shortening!

shortening, fats and oils of animal or vegetable origin used in most doughs and batters to impart crisp and crumbly texture to baked products and to increase the plasticity, or workability, of doughs. Important commercial shortenings include butter, lard, vegetable oils, processed shortenings, and margarine.

In general, you can substitute Crisco shortening for butter or margarine in equal amounts (1 cup Crisco shortening = 1 cup butter or margarine). Not only does Crisco shortening have 50% less saturated fat than butter and 0g trans fat per serving, it gives you higher, lighter-textured baked goods.

However, shortening has fallen out of favor in the past few decades because of its high trans fat content. Now that trans fats are banned in the United States, however, shortenings have been reformulated to be free of these fats ( 1 ).

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.

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 100 percent fat, meaning there is no water in it and no steam is created during baking. The lack of water also means that shortening does not increase gluten production, so cookies made with shortening tend to be softer and more tender.

As shortening is 100% vegetable oil, it has a higher melting point than butter, so stays solid longer when baking. When the shortening does finally melt, steam forms in pockets and puffs the layers of dough apart, making a slightly flaky and less flavorful crust.

What are the 4 types of shortening? ›

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

Test Kitchen Tip: If you've got open packages of both shortening and butter, you can use a combination of the two in your baking. Just combine to measure the amount called for in your recipe.

Cookies made with butter, especially high-sugar recipes, tend to be flatter and crispier than cookies made with shortening. Because of butter's low melting point, the dough tends to spread during baking before the structure sets.

Bake it better with Crisco®

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.

The main difference between lard and shortening is what they're made from—lard is made out of animal fat while shortening is made from hydrogenated vegetable oil.

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.

Why shortening instead of butter or oil? Butter can sometimes worsen sticking problems, especially in cakes that are high in sugar. Oil absorbs too much of the flour and can pool in the bottom of the pan.

While butter and shortening have similar nutritional profiles, you'll be better off using butter since it provides more vitamins and doesn't contain trans fats.

Margarine and butter can both be used as a substitute for shortening, though their moisture contents should be taken into consideration before making the swap. While shortening is 100% fat, margarine and butter contain a small percentage of water (so, shortening adds more fat, thus more richness and tenderness).