What do you use Shortening for???

[FoodMan]

I am not sure if this topic has been tackled before but I have to know if I'm alone in thinking that vegetable shortening (eg: Crisco) should be only used for frying. I tried several recipes that use veg. shortening for baking (such as pie shells and dough) or as an ingredient. However I can immediatly tell whenever something is baked with shortening not butter and it does not taste too good (it is more like tasteless).

After trying the same recipes again using butter I decided to sub butter for shortening whenever I can because it tastes so much better, smells better and even looks better. The only use that I found for shortening is in deep frying (I don't even like to grease my baking pans with this stuff).

So let's see what y'all think.

Thanks

FM

[Steve Klc]

FM--have you ever tried blending butter and Crisco in an application--to get the benefits of both? (I have in pie dough and it works out well.) How about butter-flavored Crisco--ever used it? (Yes, I know it looks nasty.)

How'd your baking of pie doughs turn out with and without Crisco besides taste--how'd you do in color and performance? What else did you try with Crisco as an ingredient besides pie dough?

(I should disclose to you that my wife and I were "Crisco chefs of the month" not too long ago--not that that means anything. But we got to experiment with all their products and we actually enjoyed using their oils and their sprays in several applications and built some recipes around them that met our standards.)

Do you ever cook for vegetarians?

[Fat Guy]

Crisco is excellent for seasoning cast-iron cookware.

[Fat Guy]

Found you, Steve:

http://www.crisco.com/chef_klc_apte.htm

The caramelized apple pie a la mode looks killer.

[oliva]

Crisco is excellent for crisping up flatbreads, especially the ones from Pakistan/ North India, for example parathas and cornmeal based ones.

[Stone]

I use Crisco in a recipe my Grandmother handed down for a dessert pastry that my family calls kichels, although they're much closer to a soft, chewy, rugelach.

The dough is a mix of mashed potato and flour, with a frightening amount of Crisco cut into it. Of course, we get the butter flavor by dipping the little fellows in melted butter and then a sugar/cinnamon mixture. mmmmmm, butter.

[laura]

I agree with the use of crisco and butter for a cobbler type of pie dough. I have adapted the recipe from Lee Baily's Country Weekends cookbook. which is anexcellent listing of basically southern recipes that lend themselves to weekend fare. He suggests using 4 tbs frozen crisco and 5 tbs frozen butter , 1and a half cup allpurpose flour , salt and 4 tbs ice water. Mix in food processor and continue with the recipe, in his case he lines a pie pan with the dough , places fruit in the center and wraps excess over the fruit. The

resulting cobbler maintains it's crisp flakiness for two days without becoming soggy

Laura

[kpurvis]

I use a mixture of Crisco and lard for frying chicken. Yes, all lard would be better, but it's hard enough to get good lard without trying to get it in quantity. And when I do get the good stuff, I keep it in the freezer and dole it out for biscuits and pie crusts, where it's really worth it.

[FoodMan]

Crisco is excellent for seasoning cast-iron cookware.

I forgot about this. I use it to season my cast iron cookware as well.

[FoodMan]

FM--have you ever tried blending butter and Crisco in an application--to get the benefits of both?  (I have in pie dough and it works out well.) How about butter-flavored Crisco--ever used it? (Yes, I know it looks nasty.)

How'd your baking of pie doughs turn out with and without Crisco besides taste--how'd you do in color and performance?  What else did you try with Crisco as an ingredient besides pie dough?

(I should disclose to you that my wife and I were "Crisco chefs of the month" not too long ago--not that that means anything.  But we got to experiment with all their products and we actually enjoyed using their oils and their sprays in several applications and built some recipes around them that met our standards.)

Do you ever cook for vegetarians?

Steve-

Congrats on your win!!

I never tried blending the two fats, that actually sounds like a pretty good idea that I might try out. As for my All-Butter pie doughs they turn out great as long as I use very chilled butter (In hindsight they might have been a little flakier if I use your suggestion and combine Crisco and butter).

I do cook for vegetarians --not vegans-- once in a while and butter is never a problem.

Thanks for your input

FM

[Steve Klc]

FM--let us know how your experiments work out. But the Crisco thing was not a win--there wasn't any competition. It's just sometimes companies and manufacturers reach out to chefs to get their advice and feedback. They offerred, my wife and I accepted, and took it as a challenge to our palates and our sensibilites--which are decidely French.

And following the kpurvis lard/freezer suggestion--we try to keep our butter in the freezer as well.

By the way--fascinating link to an article on trans fats--Crisco, shortening, margarine--here, courtesy of Margaret Pilgrim:

http://forums.egullet.org/ibf/index.php?s=...&f=2&t=9057&hl=

[Suvir Saran]

Like we call it Crisco here.. at least for the most part, in India it is famous as Dalda.

Many swear by it and have used it as a substitute for ghee. SInce it is cheaper and some believed LONG ago that it was healthier.

[Malawry]

Crisco is useful when baking for vegans or those who keep Kosher. I only cook with it when I am preparing food for friends and family members with such specialized diets. (I don't fry, but Mom used to use Crisco for fries and they tasted fine to me.) I do use it regularly for greasing baking pans, and it's the default baking pan grease used at my school as well.

I also use Ener-G Egg Replacer to bake for my vegan pals, and once I experimented with pareve margarine. The former has no flavor to speak of; the latter tasted of radioactive yellow. The egg replacer works okay if you're baking something with strong flavors, like lemon or dark chocolate.

[Jenny]

I also blend the two, it is the only way I can ever achieve soft cookies.

Altough that may be a personal defect??

[Jon Tseng]

at crimbo we always used vegetable suet (is this like crisco?) in the mincemeat for mince pies instead of real suet... works a treat...

cheerio

j

[Fat Guy]

Is vegetable shortening an undifferentiated product? I'm asking aside from the obvious things like butter-flavored Crisco being not the same as regular Crisco. What I mean is, will Crisco and another vegetable shortening (I assume there is another brand?) perform and taste the same? Or do we need to shop around?

Also, do you all associate any taste with vegetable shortening, or is it a flavorless item? If it is flavorless, or if the taste is attractive, I see no problem combining it with other fats that have preferable tastes but worse baking properties in order to achieve the best of both.

[Suvir Saran]

Is vegetable shortening an undifferentiated product? I'm asking aside from the obvious things like butter-flavored Crisco being not the same as regular Crisco. What I mean is, will Crisco and another vegetable shortening (I assume there is another brand?) perform and taste the same? Or do we need to shop around?

Also, do you all associate any taste with vegetable shortening, or is it a flavorless item? If it is flavorless, or if the taste is attractive, I see no problem combining it with other fats that have preferable tastes but worse baking properties in order to achieve the best of both.

Again... for the third time in just a few hours you have said what I wanted to... Stop it Steve!

I have always wanted to know these answers...

[KarenS]

I use crisco and butter in my pie crust recipe. Butter for the flavor and tenderness, crisco for the flakiness. I have found that you can not substitute brands.

I was embarassed of my crisco usage until I worked at Chez Pannise. The blue can was there (ONLY for pie dough). When I went to Spago, it was the same thing (though hide the can from W.P or he will throw it out)!

My grandmother swore that lard made the best pie crust (I can always tell the ones with lard). I don't care to use lard. She loved my pie dough (and thought that I had finally used lard).

Crisco is a big bad no in the new trans fat information. The amount I use in a pie crust is very small though.

[Fat Guy]

I bet you could get a nice crust if you mixed Crisco, lard, and butter.

[levyme]

what about crisco, lard, and duck fat?