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Food: Shortening edit

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Photo: Flickr user hfb

Created by: Anonymous

Edited by: Barnaby Dorfman, Alisa Escanlar, Helen Pitlick, Sheri, Mike Donahoe, Desiree Lowe

Other Names: Crisco

Translations: 缩短 (Chinese), تقصير (Arabic), Encurtamento (Portuguese), Raccourcissement (French), Acortar (Spanish) All Translations

edit About Shortening

A white, usually tasteless, solid fat formulated for baking and frying. Any fat which acts as on food by shortening gluten strands is also considered to be a shortening agent.

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Wikipedia

Shortening is a semisolid fat used in food preparation, especially baked goods, and is so called because it promotes a "short" or crumbly texture (as in shortbread). Shortening is basically just fat or lard from an animal or vegetable. The term "shortening" can be used more broadly to apply to any fat that is used for baking and which is solid at room temperature, such as butter, lard, or margarine. Shortening often has a higher smoke point than butter and margarine, and it has 100% fat content, compared to about 80% for butter and margarine. Although the term has been in use for many years, it is now known that shortening works by inhibiting the formation of long protein (gluten) strands in wheat-based doughs. The similarity in terms is entirely coincidental since full understanding of the structure and chemistry of dough is comparatively recent.

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