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#111039 08/27/03 03:05 PM
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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?


#111040 08/27/03 03:11 PM
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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.


#111041 08/27/03 04:53 PM
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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.




#111042 08/27/03 04:58 PM
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And it doesn't make my pancakes flaky.

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


#111043 08/27/03 05:04 PM
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yeahbutİ you don't put it *in your pancakes, do you? isn't it just to grease the griddle? (hrm, that sounds a bit onanistic)


#111044 08/27/03 05:13 PM
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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



#111045 08/27/03 05:43 PM
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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.


#111046 08/27/03 06:02 PM
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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.


#111047 08/27/03 07:10 PM
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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.



#111048 08/27/03 07:16 PM
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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!


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