I just followed a high rated buttercream recipe that I found here, the consistency was great; but the taste of the crisco is so disgusting eeww.....

I just DO NOT like the crisco taste in buttercream...

Can someone recomend a brand of shortening that taste good?

Thank you

I don't like Crisco either. I have better luck with Spectrum. It is transfat free, vegan and not made with soybean oil.

I think that the real culprit is I do not like soybean oil, not necessarily just Crisco. I have tried other shortenings made with soybean and I can't get past the smell, so now I just use Spectrum.

Linda, thanks for sharing that! I'm planning on transitioning to vegan and this sounds like a wonderful product!

I like b/c made with hi ratio shortening (Sweetex).

(And its more cost effective to use a hi ratio recipe since less hi ratio is required than AP shortening.)

HTH

Sweetex has transfat in it. It is also made from soybean oil. When I tested it I found it had the same smell as Crisco. When I used it, the smell quickly went away. But knowing that it has transfat and made with soybean oil, I just couldn't bring myself to use it.

Interesting at you say you need less. I have a frosting recipe that comes out light, too light to get a smooth look. The recipe calls for hi- ratio and I use spectrum. This just confirms what I was thinking, that the frosting would be thicker if I used more shortening.

I use a smbc as my standard bc. But when I have to do an american bc I always use sweetex high ratio shortening. It makes my bc nice and smooth and not greasy!!

Another vote for Spectrum products!

Jen

Thanks everyone for the answers, I have not seen any of those shortening ever, but I'll order both and stick to the one I like the most. This was BIG HELP

Has anyone tried coconut oil instead of shortening? There are several types available and depending on the press, have no coconut flavor whatsoever and you are supposed to be able to sub 1>1 shortening or butter with it. I keep meaning to give this a try but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Jen

I haven't tried it yet either. I was getting this confused with cocoa butter. I am going to try it some day, it would be great for vegan recipes. But I have not been able to get to it yet.

Let me know if you do.

Thanks everyone for the answers, I have not seen any of those shortening ever, but I'll order both and stick to the one I like the most. This was BIG HELP

I've used Spectrum, but it made for a very, very soft icing. Perhaps that could be overcome with a recipe adjustment, but I just couldn't get a satisfactory consistency. Now I use Sweetex...not completely happy with the transfats, but I've heard Sweetex Z doesn't give the same results.