The battle between butter and shortening has been an ongoing issue with much discussion and debate in the realm of culinary arts. Are they the same, interchangeable, or even equivalent? Most seem to think so but in reality these two products are completely different. Butter is as old as history. Butter is what we think about when we hear the words “home-baked cookies”. Butter cannot be replicated. So, why do we try and replace it with shortening?
Knowing the difference between butter and shortening is important to understand when it comes to using these ingredients in baking. Butter is a dairy based product. It is made by churning fresh cream or milk; typically cow’s milk. It is spreadable at room temperature, has a low melting point, and needs to be kept refrigerated. Shortening, on the other hand, can be any fat or oil based fat. Vegetable shortening is more common in baking. Unlike butter, vegetable shortening does not need to be refrigerated.
In baking, butter is used as a leavener. In a typical cake batter or cookie base, the instructions are to cream together butter and any sugar that is in the recipe. When the butter and sugars are creamed together it creates tiny little bubbles in the mix which expand when cooking in the oven. This is what gives cakes and cookies their fluffy texture. Butter is also a very important leavener in pastries. Pastry dough, or in French “mille feuille” (1000 layers) is made by a process called booking. This process involves flour dough and a block of butter which is wrapped in the dough, rolled out, and folded multiple times in different types of folds in order to create tiny layers of butter between layers of dough. Those tiny layers of butter are what give pastries their signature puffed and layered look. Although some bakeries use shortening in their puff pastry, the result of flaky layers is the same but there is one significant difference; taste.
When attending college for baking and pastry arts, one of our assignments in theory class was to taste samples of carrot cake and talk about the difference between them. When tasting one of the samples of carrot cake, I noticed this strange waxy feeling covering my tongue. I wasn’t sure what it was but the teacher noticed the strange look on my face. That is when I realized not only does shortening change the taste of something; it also changes the mouth-feel. Vegetable shortening is made from the hydrogenation of oils. Since shortening is made from oil, this causes the melting point of shortening to be a tad bit higher than that of butter. Having the melting point just a tad bit higher (our body temperature is not high enough to melt shortening on contact) is what creates the sickening waxy film which stays in your mouth long after you have finished eating your pastry. Not only does shortening add a waxy film in the mouth, it is also tasteless. Without butter one misses out on that smooth, homey, recognizable buttery taste that every dessert needs.
Most people believe that butter and shortening are interchangeable no matter the recipe; this is where everyone is wrong. The performance of butter and shortening are very different from each other. Butter and shortening have different fat and moisture contents, by substituting shortening for butter would be detrimental to the final product since each recipe is tailored for the fat and moisture content of butter. Shortening also has limitations on certain recipes that it can be used in. Any recipes that require the melting of butter whether to incorporate sugars or in no-bake recipes, by no means can shortening be a substitute for butter. Using shortening in recipes like these will produce a product that doesn't set up right and most definitely not taste the way it should.
One of the most common reasons people substitute butter for shortening is that they think shortening is healthier then butter. This is another myth. Shortening is hydrogenated; this is the process where hydrogen atoms are added to vegetable oils. Although vegetable oil is made up of unsaturated fat, adding hydrogen atoms to it to make shortening creates saturated fat. Going a step further, all hydrogenated fats are labelled trans fats. Currently trans fats are the worst possible fats that you can put into your body. Eating trans fats can cause a plethora of health risks such as: heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and cancer just to name a few. Do you really want to feed your child poison cookies made with shortening?
Butter provides the distinct flavor we all know and grew up with, it creates a product so wonderfully delicious and never fails to impress, and it provides all this while still being healthier then shortening. So I ask again; why replace butter with shortening?
Butter sculpture from the Texas State Fair 2012
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