Shortening industrial, soybean (hydrogenated) and cottonseed

Industrial shortening is a solid fat blended from hydrogenated soybean oil and cottonseed oil, formulated for commercial baking rather than everyday home cooking. Bakeries use it to laminate pastry doughs, grease and flour baking pans, fry doughnuts and other fried goods, and give pie crusts and biscuits their flaky, tender texture, since it stays solid at room temperature and melts cleanly in a hot oven. Unlike butter, it carries no water and essentially no flavor of its own, so bakers reach for it specifically for the texture and structure it provides, and it can be creamed, cut into flour, or melted depending on the recipe.

Shortening keeps at room temperature in a sealed container for a long time since it has no water content to spoil, though it is sold in large tubs more suited to a bakery than a home pantry. Per 100 grams it is 884 calories and 100 grams of fat, essentially pure fat with no protein, carbohydrate, sodium or sugar at all. It does carry 41% DV of vitamin E per 100 grams from the vegetable oils in the blend, and in practice it is measured out by the tablespoon within a recipe rather than eaten on its own.