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Shortening
Food ingredient / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Shortening is any fat that is a solid at room temperature and is used to make crumbly pastry and other food products.
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The idea of shortening dates back to at least the 18th century, well before the invention of modern, shelf-stable vegetable shortening.[1] In the earlier centuries, lard was the primary ingredient used to shorten dough.[2] The reason it is called shortening is that it makes the resulting food crumbly, or to behave as if it had short fibers. Solid fat prevents cross-linkage between gluten molecules. This cross-linking would give dough elasticity, so it could be stretched into longer pieces.[2] In pastries such as cake, which should not be elastic, shortening is used to produce the desired texture.[1][2]