Helping you prepare foods in a hurry!
Substituting Oil for a Solid Shortening
Alice Henneman, MS, RD, UNL Extension in Lancaster County
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There is no standard procedure to substitute oil for a solid shortening in baked products. While oil is 100% fat – butter, margarine and other solid shortenings are lower in fat on a volume for volume basis.
Also, solid shortening helps incorporate air into the batter when it is whipped with other ingredients such as sugar and eggs. This procedure is often referred to in a recipe as "creaming." If you try to cream ingredients with oil, your baked product is likely to be more compact and oily in texture.
Your best bet is to check with the companies that make oil – most have toll-free numbers or addresses that you can contact for more information and recipes.
Also, check your cookbooks, the library and the Internet for recipes that use oil.
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