In article >,
Doug Freyburger > wrote:

> Pennyaline wrote:
> >
> > Shortening is shortening, no matter what the product is called.
> >
> > And yes, the Crisco-type solid shortenings are used all the time by all
> > kinds of people.
>
> Well it is in cooking textbooks. In the actual grocery store if you
> look for a package that has the word shortening on it what you'll find
> is Crisco and its competitors. I figure a lot more people read labels
> in grocery stores than dig through cooking textbooks. The foodies who
> post on RFC may well love digging through cooking textbooks but we
> aren't in the majority on the topic.
>
> > There is no greater harm in using those than in using butter
>
> Not true. Crisco type solid shortening still has plenty of transfat.
> That's an unhealthy ingredient.
>
> > and they are far better baking result-wise and health-wise than
> > most of the butter imitators on the market.
>
> Except for real butter and real lard, neither of which are imitators.
> ;^)

http://www.crisco.com/Products/Produ...=17&prodID=315

There's 12g of fat in a tablespoon serving. It says 0g trans fat, but
we know that means about .5g, or 4%.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fat#Presence_in_food

"A type of trans fat occurs naturally in the milk and body fat of
ruminants (such as cattle and sheep) at a level of 2-5% of total fat."

In addition, butterfat contains twice as much saturated fat as Crisco.

So, butter doesn't look much better than Crisco, to me. Lard looks
pretty good, as it isn't a ruminant. Still, lard is high in saturated
fat.

--
Dan Abel
Petaluma, California USA