When To Substitute Shortening For Oil, And How To Pull It Off Perfectly

Shortening is most often considered as a replacement for butter, both for its properties when baking and to help make recipes vegan, but considering what shortening actually is it can also make an effective substitute for oil sometimes. Lots of people might not really know what shortening is given the vague name, but it's actually just processed vegetable oil. It's made by adding hydrogen (hence the term "hydrogenating") to liquid oil to make it solid at room temperature. This textural difference is key to the appeal, as shortening mimics the feel of butter or lard in many baked goods but with a much more neutral flavor. Since it's made from vegetable oil, it can also easily be substituted for oil in many capacities.

The first way you can use shortening is probably the most common use for your cooking oils, and that's pan frying and sauteing. Just melt it in the pan until it turns liquid, and then cook the exact same way you would use vegetable oil. Because it's now liquid, you should also use the same amounts as you would when employing vegetable oil or other neutral cooking oils. However, there is one area where it is a little different, and that's the smoke point. Vegetable shortening will smoke at 360 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 50 to 75 degrees lower than vegetable oil. So it won't be good for high-heat applications like stir-frying.

While most baked goods use butter or some kind of solid fat, there are plenty of recipes that use oils instead of butter to make cakes and breads tender and moist. Shortening can do the job, too, but should be melted when you use it to replace oil in a baking recipe. That's because the added air in shortening when solid can throw off measurements and change the texture of the finished product. Baked goods made with solid shortening will be lighter and more cakey, which you may or may not want, as the rich density of oil-based recipes is part of their appeal. This ingredient is specifically made with the original purpose of shortening dough, which is the term used when fats impede the formation of gluten to produce a softer, more crumbly texture. And since shortening is 100% fat, it's really good at this.

One reason people avoid shortening as an oil substitute is that the hydrogenation process to create shortening also produces trans fat, which has been linked to numerous health issues. However concern over trans fat led companies like Crisco to remove them from shortening years ago, and trans fats were banned in the United States in 2020. So that issue alone shouldn't stop you. It's not always a perfect substitute, but it's more than capable of doing most things that oil can do.