Shortening is a type of solid fat used in baking to make pastries, pie crusts, and biscuits tender and flaky. When you cut cold shortening into flour (using a pastry cutter or two knives in a crisscross motion), it creates tiny pockets of fat. These pockets melt during baking, leaving behind air spaces that make the final product light and delicate rather than tough or chewy.

Traditional shortening was made from animal fats like lard, but modern shortening is typically made from vegetable oils that have been processed to stay solid at room temperature. Bakers choose shortening over butter when they want a very tender, crumbly texture without a buttery flavor. You'll find it in many cookie recipes, where it helps cookies hold their shape instead of spreading thin, and in pie crusts that need to be extra flaky.

In baking, fats “shorten” the gluten strands in flour, preventing them from forming long, tough chains. These fats are called shortening because they shorten those protein strands, creating tenderness instead of chewiness.