Hi ladies,

I was wondering what can i use to substitut crisco with as it's very hard to get it here, and quite expensive.

Even though I'm not a lady I'll still answer. Do you have a cake decorating store in your area? Hi-ratio shortnings are the best. I use Sweetex. If you don't mind me asking, where is here?

Joe

Sorry for the lady bit dragon , I live in Holland.
And the bakeries here are kind of funny when it comes to selling there, baking material-products to the public. Thanks i will make a note and see what the traslation is so i can look for it maybe at the groserystore.

You can use any brand shortening as long as you make sure that it is all vegetable shortening. The shortenings made of meat and vegetables tend to be runny and makes your icing rather unstable, in my opinion.

Good luck!

Debbi

Actually, unless you use Crisco or a high-rato shortening you can run into problems. Some of the cheaper all vegetable shortenings don't blend well and make for a lumpy or gritty type icing.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

You're right, Squirrelly, but if you can't find Crisco or any hi ratio shortening, you gotta do what you gotta do. Fortunately, I can get Crsico at a good cost at Smart and Final, so I will never use anything but unless I can not absolutely avoid it.

Debbi

Thanks to all, will let you know what i found to use instead.

True Debbi, I just meant it as a warning for folks that think all shortenings available in Canada and the U.S. are not the same. They are not, the cheap store brand or generic or other cheaper brands don't mix well.
I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the one that is commonly available in Europe. This question has come up often and I know there is a product available there that folks use, but the name escapes me at the moment. It is a white solid vegetable based product but because they don't call it shortening, a lot of our Europeans friends have trouble identifying what we mean by shortening.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Sqirrellycakes, I am a tried anr true Crisco user from experience, so I know of what you speak. Perhaps one of our other European based members can recall the name that is on the tippity tip of your tongue?

Debbi

I heard you could use butter insted. Is this not right? I don't use anything other than crisco either but just wanted to let you know what I heard about the butter.

hi caduchi,
weren't trans-fats banned in holland a number of years ago?

subsitutions depend on what you're using the fat for. crisco, as are all brands of shortening, is a hydrogenated vegetable oil product, which is a vegetable alternative to lard (beef or pork tallow), and has properties somewhere in the middle between butter and lard. shortening is solid (but pliable) at room temperature, whereas butter is much softer. because of the hydrogenation, you get both the nasty trans-fats, as well as the properties that make it appealing to bakers and decorators: because it has a higher melting point than butter, it makes it ideal for laminated dough products like puff pastry, and also great for "buttercream" frostings/icings because it can sit out unfridgerated and not melt and go rancid (some argue that's because it's been rendered lifeless). high-ratio shortening is a special kind of shortening that allows for greater amounts of water to be incorporated into a cake batter, which prolongs the product's shelf-life, or appearance of freshness, due to the high-moisture content of the resulting cake. it is mostly used by commercial bakeries.

a reasonable substitution for shortening is hydrogenated margarine, but if you live in a country where trans-fats are banned, then you'd likely only have access to non-hydrogenated margarine, which, even more than butter, is soft at room temperature, but you can bake cakes with it (i have).

if you're making pie, and you're not vegetarian, you can use lard for your crusts (or very cold butter, which will give you a less-flaky, but delicious crust). if you're making simple buttercream, just use butter (it will taste better than crisco) and don't leave you're cake out in the sun.

butter is marvelous -- because of its lower melting point, it melts in the mouth and doesn't leave a greasy feeling, which shortening does. butter is also a minimally processed food, and our bodies deal with the saturated fats differently than the artificially saturated trans-fats in hydrogenated oil products (which is why many countries are moving to ban these foods).

sometimes if you can't find a crucial ingredient for a recipe, it's better just to use a different recipe entirely, that way what you get is tasty in its own right, rather than an almost-but-not-quite good enough version of what you were trying to do. for instance, because icing sugar is vital to the consistency of my delicious chocolate buttercream, there's no way i could make it significantly less sweet so the adults in my life would like it, so i use chocolate mousse to fill and frost cakes instead.

Well, first of all, high ratio shortenings are the best for icing because the term high-ratio means that the shortening can absorb many times it weight in sugar, so you will generally get a much smoother icing. However that being said, Crisco has been used for over 30 years for making icing and it works very well. Not all high-ratio shortenings are created equally, there are cheaper versions just like cheaper versions of shortenings like Crisco. Crisco is the closest domestic product there is to high ratio shortening.
Can you substitute Crisco shortening for butter and vice versa? Well you can make your icing all butter, but it is harder to decorate with because it is more subject to the heat of your hands and also it has a higher moisture content. Butter melts at about 83F whereas shortening melts between 89-99F. So the heat factor is something to be considered.
Now Crisco shortening and oil are two different things to compare. For example corn oil can be susbsituted very well for Crisco oil, corn oil has been used for many years in baking and works wonderfully.
When a recipe calls for Crisco oil you really shouldn't be melting your Crisco shortening and subsituting it and this is because both products have different characteristics. The important one is what makes the shortening solidify. So even though you melt it, once mixed in a batter it does tend to go back to its solid form once it comes back to room temperature. I think most of us have done this in a pinch, but it is not a good idea.
Can you substitute butter for Crisco oil or shortening in a cake recipe? Well you can and you will to some degree have success, depending on the recipe. Sometimes it will work really well or sometimes using a combination of the two will give a nice result. The thing is, adding butter to a cake makes for a more dense cake. Recipes are specifically developed around the ingredients. The amount of eggs and leavening and flour is adjusted according to the fat used in the recipe. So it really isn't a good idea to substitute unless you absolutely have to.
For example, to get a really light textured moist white cake, studies were done and actually you get a better texture with shortening than you do with butter. Butter makes for a more dense cake, which is why a pound cake turns out the way it does.
Can you automatically switch one product for another, no, it isn't a good idea.
Baking is really chemistry. So recipes are developed using a formula. The type of fat and its characteristics are taken into consideration when applying this formula and this is why one fat will be used in a recipe and another fat in another recipe. For example, take a recipe for an angel food cake. There is almost no trace of fat used in these recipes. YOu only use egg whites, they become the leavening factore or the thing that makes the cake rise. You do not grease your pan at all. There is no butter or oil or shortening in the recipe. The cake is light and spongey. As soon as you grease your pan or if you add a fat source, you will have a change in the texture and density of an angel food cake. It isn't that you won't get a product that turns out ok, it just won't be a true angel food cake.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Aunt Judy,

My dad would love you!!! He's allergic to all preservatives and all hydrogenated oils. If I make any cakes for him I have to make them from scratch and I have to do an all butter frosting. If I make a crisco frosting for a cake, (usually when I'm trying make a cake for someone else, and I want it to turn out extra nice) he gives me a big lecture about what that crisco is doing to my body and how the united states government is allowing us all to poison ourselves with preservatives, and it's no wonder everyone has cancer........ I could go on and on. Anyway, just wanted you to know I know just where you're coming from

SARAH

hi sarah,

while it's certainly my choice for myself to avoid consuming trans-fats, and i do try to avoid them in my baked goods, it's another challenge altogether to produce traditional decorated celebration cakes without the use of shortening and other products containing hydrogenated fats, artificial colours, flavours, etc. i make mostly dessert cakes these days, simply decorated with fruit and/or chocolate, and i always use all butter to make pie dough or sweet-paste for squares or tarts.

clearly, there's a real danger with the overwhelming prevalence of hydrogenated fats in commercially-produced and convenience foods, North American's increased reliance on these nutritionally-bankrupt convenience foods, and particularly in the foods marketed to children. there's a cookie manufacturer here in Canada that has made the switch to all-trans-fat-free cookies. i've suggested them to my sister for my niece (since they're half the price of the ones she buys), but my sister is even more strict than i am -- she insists on ORGANIC trans-fat-free oreo-type cookies for her little girl (of course, my 2-year-old niece opens the cookie, removes the white icing, hands it to you, and munches away on the chocolate wafers...she's so delicious i could eat her up!).

tell your father that even very healthy people get cancer (i work at a cancer agency), and while diet appears to play a part, the cancer mystery is more complex than simply what we eat. if he continues to lecture you about trans-fats, tell him to move to Denmark.

Aunt Judy, Canada is banning the use of trans-fats I believe by sometime in 2006, the date has been changed a couple of times. Should make life interesting for us!
Actually shortening will go rancid, I have had it happen to me, during last year's blackout. It will get old and get rancid too, just not as quickly as butter or lard.
Personally I find that high ratio shortening is more useful for the icing due to the way it absorbs the icing sugar then, for me, in baking due to the way it absorbs moisture. But then, I don't always make commercial recipes, preferring domestic ones.
It is interesting how folks worry about the health issues with icing considering that it is made up of mostly sugar. And the other thing I also find funny is that they are trying to make a healthier icing and putting it on a cake mix cake which is so loaded with chemical preservatives, it is unreal.
Heehee, if we were really concerned we would be making angel food cakes and drizzling a fresh fruit syrup over them.
Heehee, the flour itself is another issue.
Let us face it, cake and cookies and pies are not really healthy no matter what you do, but they are good for our souls!
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Just a note on store brands...some are bad and some are good (Kroger). If you want to try a store brand, find out who makes it. Kroger store brand shortening is made by Bunge. Bunge also supplies Crisco. Big thumbs up for Kroger .

I agree with squirrely's last post....I also find it funny what people worry about....I know someone who eats very unhealthy...so to speak....but is as
"healthy" as I have ever ever seen anyone.... so I agree even the healthiest people get cancer, and visa versa, I find there are more things out there to worry about not the little things....

Thanks to all for the info, and input.

I did find something at the grosery store it looks like crisco some kind of how. But they keep it in the cool seccion, and it's hard, and here it's used for frying meat.

So i don't really know if i want to use that. Might go all butter, as here the most of the time it's quite cool.

If any one remebers the name of the product that can be used here in europe, please let me know.

I learned a lot evendo i have to have my dictionary at hand.

I would have to say, to use an all butter recipe for crisco then..... that is what it sounds like that you speak of a lard...... thats big in Europe instead of Oleo or shortening...