What's the difference between shortening and lard?

Question

What's the difference between shortening and lard?

Answer 1

The word "shortening" refers to substances that "shorten" dough.  That is, shortening breaks up the long strands of gluten that develop when you kneed flour.  Before the age of food chemisry cooks knew that a "short" dough cannot be pulled into long strands, and that you shorten dough by adding fat.  Any fat.

Hence, buttercookies are also called shortbread.

Lard, the name for pig fat, is by definition a fat, therefore a shortening, and many cooks swear by its ability to produce a truly tender and flakey pie crust.  Vegetable shortening is simply product that was designed to mimic and replace lard in baking.  The fact that the vegetable fat is hydogenated (chemically altered to have more attached hydrogen atoms) makes it pretty similar to animal fat in terms of health.

Answer 2

Lard is animal derived fat, (vegetable) shortening is hydrogenated vegetable oil.

Answer 3

shortening is normally vegetable oils, solidified for use in baking.

lard is more often pork fat.

TO LARD also means to insert through very lean meat long pieces of pork backfat (the kind attached to a porkchop) to tenderize, provide moisture and flavor. The instrument used to lard lean meat is called a LARDOON.

Answer 4

Shortening is made from vegetable oil.

Lard is animal fat.