Cooking For Engineers

[Annabelle Puentes]

I do not wish to use vegetable shortening in a cookie recipe. Will it be safe to substitute "COOLED, MELTED BUTTER" for the same amount asked for in the recipe for vegetable shortening?

[Michael Chu]

Yes, but the texture will be more crumbly than flaky. Vegetable shortening is common in recipes as a replacement for lard - so a better substitute for the shortening is just to use a high quality lard. Unfortunately, the typical Amour brand or Farmer John brand lard found in supermarkets is of mediocre quality and doesn't have the clean taste of high quality leaf lard. Depending on what city you live in, access to good lard may be easy or hard to find. One tactic is to call a few artisan bakeries around town and ask them if they have a source for leaf lard - the better ones will know what you need and direct you to where they get their lard.