Shortening oil

Shortening is any fat that is a solid at room temperature and used to make crumbly pastry and other food products. Although butter is solid at room temperature and is frequently used in making pastry, the term shortening seldom refers to butter.

The idea of shortening dates back to at least the 18th century, well before the invention of modern, shelf-stable vegetable shortening.[1] In the earlier centuries, lard was the primary ingredient used to shorten dough.[2] The reason it is called shortening is that it makes the resulting food crumbly, or to behave as if it has short fibers. Solid fat prevents cross-linkage between gluten molecules. This cross-linking would give dough elasticity, so it could be stretched into longer pieces.[2] In pastries such as cake, which should not be elastic, shortening is used to produce the desired texture.

Shortened dough

A short dough is one that is crumbly or mealy. The opposite of a short dough is a "long" dough, one that stretches.

Vegetable shortening (or butter, or other solid fats) can produce both types of dough; the difference is in technique. To produce a short dough, which is commonly used for tarts, the shortening is cut into the flour with a pastry blender, pair of table knives, fingers, or other utensil until the resulting mixture has a fine, cornmeal-like texture. For a long dough, the shortening is cut in only until the pea-sized crumbs are formed, or even larger lumps may be included. After cutting in the fat, the liquid (if any) is added and the dough is shaped for baking.

Neither short dough nor long flake dough are considered to be creamed or stirred batters.

Smooth oil or shortening is a solid and soft oil that is used in the preparation of various cakes such as gooseberry bite-sized cake, types of dry pastries, Danish and even in the preparation of thousand-layer dough. The property of this oil is in the preparation of bread and sweets with better quality, softer and lighter, and the sweets prepared with this oil have a longer shelf life. On the other hand, some people don't like the taste of butter or animal oil in the sweets or bread they prepare, that's why they use this oil. The last reason is that the fat of this type of oil is pure, but the fat of butter contains buttermilk, water, etc., which evaporates when preparing the dough by heating these ingredients and increases the humidity of the dough, this directly affects the quality of the dough. Semi-solid oil has its own problems, it is rough and grainy, and it is full of air bubbles, which causes many problems in the quality of cooking and measurement of ingredients in the preparation of sweets and bread.

To prepare smooth oil, it is enough to put one kilogram of solid oil without fragrance on a gentle and indirect heat until it slowly melts. For this, it is better to use the bain-marie method to melt the oil, because the oil should not be hot or smoke at all, it should only become liquid. Then let it cool down and pour it into a glass container with a lid. This process is called oil refining. It is better to prepare this oil fresh, because if you store it in the refrigerator, you have to grind the oil with butter or normal solid oil for reuse. Pay attention that the amount of butter should be more than plain oil. For example, one kilo of smooth oil should be ground with one kilo and 200 grams of butter. After being refrigerated overnight, this oil will be solid at room temperature and will have a smooth, colorless, odorless texture.

Usage of shortening oil in food industry

Thinning and softening the texture of breads

Porosity and crispiness of the product due to air entering the dough structure

Increasing strength and integrity in the texture of sweets

Easier to work mixed with women with high speed

References:

1- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortening

2- https://aftabmargarine.com/shortening-oil/