7 ms·

So something I saw with shortening now (to include Crisco) is that it now is mainly palm oil, which has been fairly controversial due to deforestation: https:/

• serbrech 7y ago
  why do you need such shortenings, can't you use the original version of all the shortening... butter? I have never seen "shortenings" in france. pastries is done with butter and that's all.
  • kop316 7y ago
    Depends on the recipe I want to use. Tortillas call for lard, and I don't think butter would be a good substitute on that. (Actually, I think the only reason I have lard/shortening is to make flour tortillas) But you are correct, I would prefer to use butter when I can! EDIT: My parents are also vegan, and I like to cook with them. So I also use it then.
    • wigl 7y ago
      Same here, but butter and ghee can also be used to make great pliable flour tortillas. I use european butter though, YMMV.
      • kop316 7y ago
        Do you cool off the flour tortillas to prevent the butter from melting? I'm curious now!
    • lonelappde 7y ago
      Tortillas call for lard because pigs (lard and not well milkable) are native to the Americas but cows (butter and tallow) aren't.
      • kop316 7y ago
        True. I may have to try out the tortillas with other fats to try it.
    • yellowapple 7y ago
      I've used butter to make flour tortillas before. Works pretty well. I've also used Crisco, on that note. Works not-quite-as-well, but still better than expected.
    • pkroll 7y ago
      Lard is also good for frying potatoes, though no where near the tastiest (beef fat used to be used for McD's fries, duck fat is amazing... probably goose fat though I've never actually had that one).
  • emodendroket 7y ago
    The original reason for many was that it was believed that saturated fats were uniquely unhealthy, although it turns out that hydrogenated oils were even worse, so, whoops. Cost is also a factor in commercial preparations.
    • wirrbel 7y ago
      It's not entirely wrong but it kind of started with an industry having a surplus of vegetable oils and looking for other markets that they could sell it on (it was used for soaps till then). So they started finding out how to make it food-ready and introduced additional processing so the oil wouldn't go rancid as fast and closer to fats that people were accustomed to (lard, butter). They were cheaper than the traditional fats, which opened a market. Then, traditional fats were pushed out due to health concerns. Nina teichholz has written about the history and offers a dissenting opinion to the recommendations of unsaturated oils if you are interested https://thebigfatsurprise.com/ https://thebigfatsurprise.com/ It seems the
• melq 7y ago
  Not only that, but fully hydrogenated oils are supposed to be quite bad for you. I think. It’s really hard to keep current on nutrition debates and “healthy” is a fairly nebulous concept when it comes to food.
  • TazeTSchnitzel 7y ago
    It's not fully hydrogenated any more for that reason, though I couldn't tell you what it is instead.
    • indecisive_user 7y ago
      It is fully hydrogenated. You can read the ingredients on their website[1]. While it's not the healthiest fat for a typical Western diet, it contains zero trans fat(partially hydrogenated), which is the only truly harmful fat. Trans fat is pretty much dangerous in any quantity and directly correlates to an increase in cardiovascular events. Artificially added Trans fat was banned in the US in 2018. 1. https://www.crisco.com/products/vegetable-shortening/all-vegetable-shortening https://www.crisco.com/products/vegetable-shortening/all-veg...
  • dehrmann 7y ago
    Aren't hydrogenated oils just saturated fats?
    • pstuart 7y ago
      They're trans fats: https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/fats/trans-fat https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-s...
      • dehrmann 7y ago
        > The primary dietary source for trans fats in processed food is “partially hydrogenated oils." Look for them on the ingredient list on food packages. Crisco ~removed (FDA lets you state 0 trans fat if it's less than .5g per serving) trans fats, and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is no longer an ingredient. Hydrogenating oils saturates them. According to Wikipedia, > Partial hydrogenation of the unsaturated fat converts some of the cis double bonds into trans double bonds by an isomerization reaction with the catalyst used for the hydrogenation, which yields a trans fat. So apparently fully hydrogenating an oil won't produce trans fat.
• ljm 7y ago
  Ghee is quite cheap and easy to make by yourself, so long as you use a good butter. A lot cheaper than the ready made stuff, I’ve found.
  • kop316 7y ago
    I saw that, I may have to try it sometime! Out of curiosity, how much Ghee can you make out of butter (I.e. start with 16 oz of butter, get approx 8 oz? Or how much?)
    • ofcrpls 7y ago
      This is how Ghee is made in my house. 0. Be from a family line that consumes gallons up gallons of curd/yogurt weekly. 1. Curd Process - Boil whole milk, let it cool down a bit, and add some older curd, let it sit overnight in your oven with the light on. 2. The next morning, put the container in the refrigerator. 3. At night, you'll notice a think layer of creamy butter on top of the curd. Scrape that layer off the curd and transfer it into a container that you will store in your freezer. Enjoy the curd. 4. Repeat steps 0-3 over a few days, which will cause you to have a container full of creamy butter. 5. When you need ghee, melt the contents at medium heat while continuing to stir to maximize the ghee you'll make out of it. You will start seeing some particulate forming at the bottom 6. Filter and transfer the melted contents into your ghee container. 7. Turn off the stove but continue stirring the particulate matter with some added sugar for a tasty sweet. 8. Rinse Repeat.
      • kop316 7y ago
        This is awesome! I'm going to attempt it.
      • dragontamer 7y ago
        Do people really need Ghee specifically? Or do people need "clarified butter" If you just want "butter that doesn't burn", here's what I do. 1. Melt butter in a pot. This separates butter into its three fundamental parts: solids (floating at the top), oil (in the middle), and water. 2. Heat until all the water at the bottom vaporizes. 3. Pour remaining mixture through a coffee filter. This removes the solids (which easily burn). Milk Solids burn at 350F, making raw butter unsuitable for frying. The goal of clarified butter (and Ghee is a type of clarified butter), is to raise the smoke-point to roughly 450F (roughly equivalent to canola oil). Normal butter will burn before the mallard reaction (Mallard is roughly 400F). But clarified butter burns AFTER the mallard reaction. The mallard reaction is what makes the slightly-sweet nicely cooked meat taste. Similar reactions occur in vegetables, meats, breads, etc. etc. So its very important to use oils which burn at higher temperatures (450F+: Clarified Butter, Canola Oil, Soy Oil, Peanut Oil). Some fats, such as normal-butter, bacon fat, or olive oil burn at 350F. So you end up with a "burnt" taste from the burning fat before the mallard reaction even takes place. -------- Ghee is a particular "cooked butter" taste. Its a bit more difficult to make (and more expensive than) simple clarified butter. If you're sauteing, frying, or whatever with butter, its important to know how to clarify it. Or I guess use Ghee (but that's more expensive / time consuming).
• heavyset_go 7y ago
  Palm oil is also high in palmitic acid, consumption of which is associated with CVD[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmitic_acid#Health_effects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmitic_acid#Health_effects