What's the Difference Between Lard and Shortening? (2024)

FAQs

What's the Difference Between Lard and Shortening? ›

Choosing between shortening and lard comes down to personal preference. Both create a flaky, tender crust, are semi-solid, and are 100% fat. Swap one for the other in recipes. If you want to add additional flavor to the dish, lard is the right choice.

Choosing between shortening and lard comes down to personal preference. Both create a flaky, tender crust, are semi-solid, and are 100% fat. Swap one for the other in recipes. If you want to add additional flavor to the dish, lard is the right choice.

The best choice of fat depends on the situation! If you're making a food that can use olive oil, then go with the olive oil to get the most unsaturated fats. But if the choice is between lard and a vegetable shortening (like in the case of tamales or baked goods), lard may be the healthier choice.

Lard is made from rendered pork fat, while Crisco is a vegetable shortening made from hydrogenated vegetable oils. Lard has a richer flavor and a more solid texture than Crisco, making it better suited for frying. Crisco, on the other hand, has a milder flavor and a lighter texture, making it better suited for baking.

By the late 20th century lard began to be considered less healthy than vegetable oils (such as olive and sunflower oil) because of its high content of saturated fatty acids and cholesterol.

Similar to the shortening crust, the lard also produced a flat, crumbly pastry with noticeable greasiness. This one fared slightly better in the test because the lard provided more flavor than the shortening, with just a hint more richness.

While they come from the same animal, bacon fat and lard differ in taste and function. Bacon fat has a smoky taste, while lard—rendered fat from the pig—has a neutral flavor. You can use bacon fat to add flavor to baked goods, gravies, and sautés, but lard primarily adds texture to fried or baked foods.

Two common places to buy lard is at the supermarket or butcher shop. Supermarkets: Processed, or shelf-stable, lard is available at most large grocers. Look for it in the baking aisle, near the shortening. You're most likely to find it in paper-wrapped blocks or in buckets.

Lard typically lasts six months at room temperature and up to a year when refrigerated, but it's essential to adhere to the dates provided by the manufacturer to avoid the risks of using spoiled fat.

Crisco, you may recall, was made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, a process that turned cottonseed oil (and later, soybean oil) from a liquid into a solid, like lard, that was perfect for baking and frying.

Why is lard so bad? ›

Lard also has cholesterol, she notes, as do all animal fats. And that 45 percent fat can still be a lot, depending on how much you eat. Add to this that lard sold in supermarkets is often hydrogenated, to make it shelf stable, and you've got a product with cholesterol, trans fats, and saturated fat, too.

In the 1950s, scientists piled on, saying that saturated fats in lard caused heart disease. Restaurants and food manufacturers started to shun lard.

If you don't have lard, vegetable shortening is an ideal substitute. Made from hydrogenated vegetable oil, vegetable shortening has the same congealed, gel-like consistency and white hue as lard and emulsifies just as easily into corn masa.

Add cut or ground pork fat to crockpot and secure with lid. Turn crockpot on to low heat. Allow fat to render for 4-5 hours, stirring every hour or so. Don't remove any of the lard until all the fat appears to be cooked.

In the earlier centuries, lard was the primary ingredient used to shorten dough. The reason it is called shortening is that it makes the resulting food crumbly, or to behave as if it had short fibers. Solid fat prevents cross-linkage between gluten molecules.

Vegetable Shortening – This will replace the usual lard. It adds a nice fatty richness to the beans.