I wanted a small container of shortening and Target only had big ones. Wandering over to Sprouts next door, the only option was this Spectrum stuff.
Hmm. Non-hydrogenated. That's different from the Crisco* I used to get regularly when I baked pies to persuade Dad into giving me keys to an auto and am more familiar with, you know, the partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.
What's the difference? Well, partially hydrogenated oil is manufactured to yield oils with more hydrogen atoms on them. That generally means it has a longer shelf life. That's good, right, so what's the big deal? Not a huge deal, but studies have shown that trans-fats (trans meaning the shape the chemically partially-hydrogenated oil takes on due to where the hydrogen atoms are added) tends to give folks heart disease. And that's why there's been such a push in food industry to eliminate trans fats. Consumers, being the finicky kind that they might be, just don't want heart disease and they vote with their dollars.
So what do we have here? Mechanically pressed organic palm oil.
Does that mean it'll look like "regular" shortening? Seems so.
Even feels like it.
I'll put it to a test.
Spectrum Organic All Vegetable Shortening available in a 24-oz plastic container at Sprouts for $6.99.
*I've read that Crisco no longer partially-hydrogenates their fats and thus is essentially trans-fat free but I haven't read a label on a container recently.
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