this is a two-part query:

first, why is the grease that folks sometimes use to make pancakes, cakes and such called "shortening"? wouldn't it be more descriptive to call it "widening"? ;-)

secondly, is shortening still a gerund even though it's a tangible thing (aren't most gerunds simply descriptions of verbs, eg swimming, running, eating, etc?)?

it seems there are several cooking-related terms that follow this unusual gerund format, such as seasoning, leavening, and... um, i'm sure there are more, but i can't think of any. i mean, i do understand that (for example) seasoning is a gerund of the infinitive 'to season', but it's more than simply the description of the process; it's an actual substance. would that be like a concrete gerund or something?

AHD4 does have, for shorten : 4. To add shortening to (dough) so as to make flaky. but that's kind of circular. I'd say that's an interesting question and I'm glad you asked it.

hmm.... flaky....

i wonder, then: does the greasiness of shortening cause flour to sheet and flake, as opposed to rising, with fluffy air bubbles? i suppose that could be construed as 'shortening' a recipe.

And it doesn't make my pancakes flaky.

I do that all by myself, but that's parbly cuz it's catching

yeahbut© you don't put it *in your pancakes, do you? isn't it just to grease the griddle? (hrm, that sounds a bit onanistic)

Mom's Favorite Sunday Pancake Recipe


Ingredients
2 cups buttermilk (add more as required for proper consistency)
2 eggs, not beaten
1 Tablespoon Canola oil or 1 tablespoon melted butter
1-1/4 cups unbleached flour
1-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon turbinato[sic] sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

i don't know all the chemistry of it, (any chem major feel free to jump in and correct me!) but basicly, saturated fats (particularly) and all solid fats to some degree, have a crystiline structure.
it is the crystiline structure of the hydro cabons that allow fats and flour to mix and combine, and end up being very different--just as pure carbon can be in slippy sheets, or solid lumps, or hard diamonds..

these crystals, combined with the protein in flour (gluten), and just a very little water, form smooth sheets (the same way carbon does can alone, when it forms slippy sheets of graphite, which even feel greasy!)

the gluten in flour, when mixed (agitated)in with water, (and very little shortning-- almost the opposite ratio from 'pastry', forms a mesh--the yeast (or rather the CO2 it gives off) stretches this mesh to create bread as we know and love it.

If you agitate it just a little, and add a fast acting leaven (like baking soda and an acid --as in Faldage's recipe) you get a very soft mesh (or as he would say, tender pancakes!)

But when you mix flour with shortning and a medium amount of liquid, you get a different structure again, a hard crystal (or crisp cookies!)which aren't flaky!

i think we touched on why shortening was called shortening, long long ago, in a thread about grease--which american some times think of as food stuff, (and in the UK grease they never do!)

partly it is the very naturechemical structure of the fat/shortening (and oil will do it to some degree, but less so), which is why the best pie crust are made from lard (you can almost see the crystals in lard, it glitters!) and the least flaky come from crusts made with poly unsaturated oil.

One other characteristic obtained by shortening is brittleness. "Mammy's little baby loves shortening bread..."
And flakiness depends on repeatedly rolling the dough out very thin, folding it and rolling again, and I think flour dusting between rollings.

P.S. Here's a URL with all the details:
http://www.allrecipes.com/cb/kh/pie/piecrust/default.asp
And the physics and chemistry are so complex, ordinary chemistry courses don't attempt to discuss it. It's a black art, not a science.

AHD4 does have, for shorten : 4. To add shortening to (dough) so as to make flaky. but that's kind of circular. I'd say that's an interesting question and I'm glad you asked it.
Actually it's not circular. A crust which is "short" is flaky, light and tender. You shorten a pastry dough by adding the right form of grease to make it short and by not overworking it so that less gluten is made. Shortening is the material you add to make the pastry short.
Mom's piecrusts will always be shorter than mine but then she's shorter than I am too so fair's fair.

Dear Dr. Bill, in this case, . "Mammy's little baby loves shortening bread..--short'nin bread has a whole other meaning!
-like short bread--(or bisquits) the shortnin bread that is loved is hot and fast-- but the 'bread' is sex!

AHD4 gives 12a. Containing a large amount of shortening; flaky: a short pie crust.

But it still doesn't answer the question. Just makes it triangular instead of circular.

-like short bread--(or bisquits) the shortnin bread that is loved is hot and fast-- but the 'bread' is sex!
good heavens!

As to triangular - that would be a popover not a pie.
Hmmm given part one of this post even popover becomes a double entendre.

Next thang you gonna tell us rhubarb pie is something naisty.

Re;secondly, is shortening still a gerund even though it's a tangible thing (aren't most gerunds simply descriptions of verbs, eg swimming, running, eating, etc?)?

isn't a gerund a verb that describes a continueal state of being?--in the sample fishing-- No fishing --is a gerund-- no fishing today, or tomorrow, or yesterday..no fishing ever (a continual state) but I went fishing today, fishing in that sentence is not a gerund. (not sure what form of a verb it is!)
it seems there are several cooking-related terms that follow this unusual gerund format, such as seasoning, leavening, and... um, i'm sure there are more, but i can't think of any. i mean, i do understand that (for example) seasoning is a gerund of the infinitive 'to season', but it's more than simply the description of the process; it's an actual substance. would that be like a concrete gerund or something?

seasoning-- as in She has a very deft hand at seasoning, her soup is always flavorful, and never to salty. is a gerund,(cause there seasoning always means 'adding a flavor to a food') but in [I love McCormacks poultry seasoning, i think its great! its a noun..

and yes food terms seem to be filled with them.. whipping, (whipping the whipping cream) pickling (Pickling with pickling salt)Icing or frosting (icing/frosting the cake with vanilla icing/frosting) and many more i am sure...
(glacing might be one, and sugaring, too,) grating (cheese)... enough!

Nope, rhubarb pie is too nice-ty b naisty

Or is there something in our collective un-Gestalt Zeitgeist that's turning new threads into Food threads? Helen, what have you put in the software???

These are food related words, AsP dear, not recipes for pickling, or frostings!

and goodness knows english has so many food words --partly, but not entirely because the 'court' spoke french, and gave use french words for what we eat, but the servants, serfs and so on spoke anglo-saxon, so we have germanic based words for animals (beef/cow)(veal/calf),etc.

but i think the point about seasoning (the verb) becoming the noun (or is it the other way round-- season the noun becoming a verb?-- and food terminology being filled with such words is an interesting point.

Then there is the short cake (shortcake) such as the classic shortcake to serve with strawberries and whipped cream to make strawberry shortcake. This is a cake made from a stiff batter with not a lot of liquid. It comes out rather dry and very crumbly (the better to soak up the strawberry juice).

The Scottish type shortbread (just waiting for Jo to weigh in here) is a cookie (biscuit to the transponders) very similar to shortcake -- on the dry side and very crumbly.