OK, I've read about the evils of new crisco in icing, so when I skipped down to the local walmart for a new can of shortening I was surprised to find more than 1 option. I didn't know whether to get vegetable shortening or vegetable-slash-animal fat(?) shortening, and for a moment I even considered lard because I don't know the difference!

So ladies, can you give the newbie a hand and tell me which one yall prefer and why? (I need Alton Brown clarity LOL)
TIA!

I don't know the advantages/disadvantages as far as flavor and texture, but I do know that animal fat is full of saturated fat. That's the kind that gives you high cholesterol and heart disease.

Animal fat doesn't make for very nice, yummy icing. There is something about the consistancy that does not hold it together. Also, when getting the walmart shortening, get the one with the Trans fat-holds alot better as well! And one more key to help you with your icing, if you live in a humid area, add 1-2 tbsp meringue powder to your icing-makes all the difference in the world!!! HTH

you want vegetable shortening, lard is animal fat used for cooking NOT baking or icing. You can find store brand vegetable shortening with the trans fat you're looking for or try hi-ratio such as sweetex,alpine that you can buy on-line or at cake supply stores.

eww!! Don't use animal fat! yuck!! I have no scientific reason, just yuck!
Honestly, I don't think you're supposed to use animal fat for any reason other than frying.?. (at least I've never heard of any recipe that calls for animal fat in the ingredients)..... Speaking of frying, now I'm in the mood for onion rings!!

I know I'm going to be fried for this one, but I just found it online, and with the article info leading up to it, it made a LOT of sense.

Think of it as me playing Devil's Advocate....(ducking behind the sofa).

All fats and oils are not equal. Some are healthy and beneficial; many, commonly available in the supermarket, are poisonous. The health distinction is not between saturated and unsaturated, as the fats and oils industry would have us believe. Many saturated oils and fats are highly beneficial; many unsaturated oils are highly poisonous. The important health distinction is between natural and engineered.

I agree..no animal fat..I have continued to use the crisco, even the new no trans fat one and have had no problem with my b/c. The only thing that I have ever noticed to cause a problem was the one time I got light butter instead of regular and man was it like soup. Besides that I use the same recipe all the time.

Dawn

Hi,
Non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening is healthiest. Hydrogenated oil is chemically altered and literally like pouring plastic into your arteries. Trans fats are another issue, but I completely avoid hydrogenated oil at all costs. Unfortunately, a lot of veg shortening use hydro. oil as a cheap stablizer, etc. I use Spectrum or Earth's Balance.

Lard, in my opinion, is disgusting- I watched a documentary on how they render fat for lard and couldn't eat for 2 days.

good luck.

Thanks guys!
I came home with Great Value (walmart generic ) all vegetable partially hydrogenated trans fat inclusive shortening. Sounds like the safest pick from the grocery so far!
My G-ma tried to teach me to make pie crusts and biscuits with lard, that's why I asked (she's from the South, can ya tell?), I just haven't been brave enough yet.
And PLEASE don't tell me how it's rendered-documentaries already took away hot dogs and bologna! lol

For an overview on the most commonly used fats:

http://tinyurl.com/2j9k37
(Pantry Fats from Sarah Phillips of baking911.com.)

FYI, it is a violation of copyright to cut and paste info from another website and post it - but pasting a link is fine!

For those of you turning up your noses at animal fat in baked goods, if you've ever eaten a Pillsbury (or store brand) pie crust, you've eaten lard. And loved every minute of it, I'll bet.

Not that I would advocate it for icing, and means of obtaining it aside, lard is actually better for you than butter is.

Coming from a family who's of European descent, I've had my share of pork fat, chicken fat. mmmmm.....

My mum used chicken fat for only a few meals but pork fat is big in our cooking. (I personally don't cook with it).

A lot of our pastries, if you cook authentically, require the use of lard. I find that these pastries are a lot more flavoursome and moist. If we use butter only, then the pastries crack. HHmmm.... isn't butter animal fat????

No, they are not good for you, but what IS good for you that tastes as good as when there is fat involved in the cooking process???

Let me gross you out here, Traditionally we get a slab of pork fat,(speck) skewer it, stick it over a hot ashy fire, have some bread on the ready and wait until it drips on the bread. Smokey, runny pork dripping is waved over the bread that has finely chopped onions and a sprinkling of paprika on it.

YUM.

OK, when I hear the word 'meringue' I think of weepy lemon meringue pies - can something like that happen with icing?

Nope. IMBC is the most ethereal, delicious, wonderfully creamy-but-not-too-sweet icing and I fell in love with it the first time I tried it. (Thank you Antonia74)

The main problem with it is the butter, not the meringue. I recently witnessed 40 year old candles on an IMBC cake that melted the icing so badly there was actually an oil slick on top of the cake At least I was there to dab it all off before the cake was cut so nobody had to bit into it.

Overview of the meringue based b/c's:
(With recipes.)

http://tribes.tribe.net/m/craftycakes/thread/ed0ff808-5ad4-478c-b5be-d7d08ffc773f

Additional meringue b/c recipes:

http://www.sweetcelebrations.us/Recipes/BUTTERCREAMS.htm

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/recipe_print/0,1946,FOOD_9936_10734_PRINT-RECIPE-FULL-PAGE,00.html

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_30224,00.html

ShirleyW's Italian Meringue b/c:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2426-Italian-Meringue-Buttercream--Shirleys-Method.html

HTH

hummmm pork I'm getting hungry

Rendering lard is not the gross part, we home butcher 2 hogs every year, usually in feb. I wont want to be around when the hog is killed, but after it is scalded, scraped and hung, it looks just like meat, not an animal. What I never liked to do was clean the tapes (intestines) for the sausage casing. I also hated to singe the hair off the pigs ears, this and other off fallings as I call them were made into pudding...ewwwwwwwwww. My MIL is no longer around so we do not clean tapes and make pudding as she insisted. Lard is great for frying and baked goods, very tender pie crusts. I would not even think about lard in icing. I use virgin olive oil mostly now for frying and Crisco for baking. I want to add, I am mostly a vegetable eater, bout the only meat I induldge in is a hamburger or chicken breast now and then.....and we raise beef cattle!