What fat??

Nickynoo1

Hi,
I've been put off baking cake etc lately by the high price of the ingredients, mainly fat. I used to use normal butter but since its now twice the price haven't bought any for ages.

What fat do you use??

I see lard is loads cheaper and it does say perfect for baking, but the name "lard" puts me off. Does anyone use it?, does it taste like eating a lump of fat?

thanks
Nickynoo1

betterlife

never used lard myself, i have always used stork and found it cheap and great for cakes and pastry. x

lucasmum

I wouldn't use lard for cakes but in pastry it's fine, or any savoury baking. To use butter in baking seems a waste because you would lose the taste of the butter (unless it is shortbread or similar).
I use stork or an own brand marg in all my baking and that includes the celebration cakes I sell and I have always had complements on the taste.

Nickynoo1

Thanks,
will search out the cheapest stork then.
Nickynoo1

shewhoguards

I got a BIG packet of beef fat in Tesco the other day for 40p I think it was. Wouldn't have tried it in sweet pastry, but in shortcrust pastry for my steak-and-ale pies it was fine.

floyd

Strange experience with baking the other night, made 2 batches of cupcakes using a basic 4oz flour/sugar/fat with 2 eggs and 1 tsp baking powder mix. The first batch I made using Lurpack unsalted butter and the second I made with Stork.
The consistency of the butter one was like stiff whipped cream and rose beautifully and the one made with Stork was much more sloppy and the cakes sank in the middle. No idea why as I measured everything, used the same batch of flour etc but the end results were completely different

Anyway, as a rule for pastry I use half Trex and half Stork and for cakes I use butter. I was going to switch to using Stork for cakes as well but the cupcake disaster put me off

juliapenguin

My Mum makes the best pastry ever and always uses a mixture of lard and butter. Having said that, I once had the most delectable pastry at a party and the woman who made it said that it was Stork, but a higher proportion of fat to flour than normal, with very little or no water. I've done that myself and it's gorgeous.

IMO pastry made with lard doesn't taste at all 'meaty' even in sweet things like mince pies. After all, mincemeat traditionally has suet in it, doesn't it?

Hawthorn

I use Lard for pastry only, but as someone already said, I will often use a mixture of Lard and Butter.
A little off topic, but if anyone likes dumplings, but doesn't like paying a fortune for suet, dumplings can be made with another solid fat in place of the suet. Half fat to flour is the ratio you need to use

pigpen

I use 50/50 lard/stork for pastry and stork in buns and cakes..

Ben84

I've never tried lard as it's normally made from pork, so can't comment on how well it would work in cakes, but my guess is that it isn't well suited to making cakes.

I normally use Sainsburys block margarine, which comes in 500g blocks wrapped in gold foil and costs 70p at the moment. It makes excellent cakes, biscuits and brownies. Not very good for pastry however, but it's the best butter substitute I've tried in cakes.

noonesperfect

I've come across a gingerbread recipe that uses lard but I wouldn't use it in normal baking unless as a 50/50 mix with marge for pastry.

You can use vegetable oil in some recipes, but quite honestly I wouldn't "waste" butter in a cake. Stork (has some trans fats though) or own brand sunflower for me every time.