Shortening is actually a kind of fat formed after the refining of plants and animals or after a number of procedures, similar to a kind of cream, but it is generally used as a raw material for the processing of food, and will not be directly consumed.

Shortening refined animal and vegetable fats and oils, hydrogenated oils, or mixtures of the above fats and oils, solid fats and oils by rapid cooling, kneading, or not by rapid cooling, kneading, and solid or fluid state of the fat products. Shortening has processing properties such as plasticity and emulsification, and is generally not suitable for direct consumption, but is used to process pastries, bread or fried foods, so it must have good processing properties. The properties of shortening are different, and the production process is also different.

Shortening characteristics:

Shortening in the air by high-speed mixing bubbles, the air in the small bubbles are shortening inhaled, this gas properties of the fat is called caseinization. The size of the caseinization is expressed by the caseinization value, which is 100 times the number of milliliters of air contained in one gram of the sample.

Tyrosification is an important property of food processing, the shortening added to the batter, after mixing can make the batter volume increases, the production of food fluffy, soft.

Reference:

Baidu Encyclopedia-Shortening (Edible Oil)