Reddit mentions: The best baking & cooking shortenings

I think a lot of the answers here are close, but not close enough.

Metal: works fine, but a stainless steel pan is fine as well. I actually prefer stainless steel as cast iron can retain too much heat or keep going. However, if your surface doesn't have even heat distribution and your pan is even slightly warped, your burgers won't come out right. Restaurants cook over gas flame with stainless steel above it. Thus, the answer for you is to cook with a stainless steel pan over a gas stove.

Salt: most places put a lot of salt on to make things taste better, but to also accelerate the cooking process. Salt your patties. I don't suggest putting any other spices like pepper or whatever on until the very end, otherwise they can burn.

Fat: Using In-N-Out as the standard, I don't know what their fat content is, but I've been to the original stores where you walk up and can see the meat cooking 4' away from you and it's light pink. Very white. Plenty of fat. 90/10 is only good for making bolognese so you don't have to scoop much grease out of your sauce. I don't think 80/20 is fatty enough for a good burger. 85/15, 90/10 or 93/7 is even worse. Not only that, it's not going to be chuck all the time, but sirloin or even round. It's fine to blend beef and I've certainly ordered by own mix in the past (like chuck, tri tip and sirloin is a fave), but most places are just using ground chuck.

Handling: the more you mix up meat, the more it becomes a meatball. If you're using eggs, you're using the wrong technique. When I get the ground beef, I cut burger-sized pieces out of it and smash them directly onto the grill. I laugh at Smashburger because I've been doing that forever. One of the most renowned burger joints near me in Quebec (2 year winner of the Golden Fork for best poutine at the Festival du Poutine) has been smashing their burgers for 50-60 years. If you smash the burger down it will be ultimately tender. This was a technique I learned from my favourite restaurant before it closed.

Buns: your buns suck. Retail buns are shit. Even ones made by brands you know are different. You know why McDonald's buns are so unique? Rice flour. They are custom buns. The only restaurant-quality bun IMO are the ones from Pepperidge Farm. Another thing is liquid shortening. Your buns are "buttered" in something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Whirl-Butter-Alternative-Gallon-Pack/dp/B00BUYTBAA

And then grilled. Otherwise, places that use toasted buns are putting them in a bun toaster. High heat, quickly. How? Broil in your oven like you had a Salamander.

Blasphemy: Another thing burger places do that you're told never to do is smash the meat while cooking. They do it to speed up the cooking process a bit. They don't turn the meat except once. You'll see cooks smash the burger right after they flip it. They're making sure it makes good contact.

Cheese: the processed cheese you get at the store isn't what the restaurants use. The closest to it is Kraft Deli Deluxe. Believe it or not, there actually is higher quality processed cheese. Another mistake is people use medium or above cheddar or melt cheddar. That just makes your burger a greasy mess. The sharper the cheese, the less creamy and more greasy it is. Always use thin-sliced mild cheddar and add the cheese as you remove the burger from the pan and let the leftover heat "sweat" the cheese. Melted cheddar on a burger completely changes the taste and consistency. Adding your tomato/lettuce/etc helps keep the cheese a bit cool as well.

Finally, if you don't mind the mess, my secret technique is to grill with sauce. In-N-Out will grill your burger with mustard. That's a good thing. Right at the end of the process, put mustard on the patty and flip it to the mustard side. I was friendly with the owner of a Fatburger who became my best friend when I told him I loved a chili burger with grilled mustard, chili, cheese and onions. "I got it", he said. I like to forego any salt when I cook and then grill each side with soy sauce at the end. Very savoury. My friends all rave about that. Grilling with a sauce before it burns but can caramelize with the meat is a great little science trick.

ALERT ALERT: bad math...

There are 256 tbsp in 1 gallon. One tablespoon of Canola oil is ~124 calories. You were off by a factor of ten. So it would actually take 27 gallons of canola oil. However, in an eight month span that is only 3.3 gallons per month or under a gallon per week. So the Canola oil would have been ball park $400 dollars. It is some of the most calorie dense stuff you can buy save lard. It is safe to assume he ate convenience foods that were slightly healthier and more expensive.

EDIT BELOW HERE:

Lets see how much Crisco you need!

Ok so 1tbsp of Crisco is 12g and you can buy 39.2 lbs of Crisco for: http://www.amazon.com/Crisco-CRISCO-SHORTENING/dp/B0029JW814/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=grocery&qid=1260420857&sr=1-3 68.15 at the moment. Lets just assume that is 35 lbs of product (packaging, etc.).

That gives us (453.59237 35) so 15875 grams of Crisco. That comes out to 15875 / 12 110 for 145,000 calories for about 70 bucks. That works out to $0.000482 / calorie. The Canola oil was ballpark $0.0004571 / calorie. (Check .0004571*875000) = ~399.96. So the Canola wins. Who can find a more a better $$ / calorie ratio? Reddit DO NOT DISAPPOINT ME :)



Thanks,

Fact Check Department

I swear by the same recipe. I have started using high-ratio shortening instead of regular shortening. The cost is more, but the results are so much better.

To explain, in case you don't know... high ratio has a lower melting point than regular shortening, so it melts on your tongue right away, not leaving you with that greasy-mouth feeling of regular shortening. I get mine from Amazon. This container lasts quite some time. https://www.amazon.com/High-Ratio-Shortening-3-lb/dp/B00A0OW6MQ/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1503431888&sr=8-1&keywords=high+ratio

Also: If you somehow get it wrong and it doesn't mix right--if it's warm, put it in the fridge for 15 minutes, if it's cold, let it sit on the counter for 15 minutes, then try whipping again. Most messed up SMBC can be corrected. Don't throw it until you read all the questions and concerns in Gretchen's SMBC thread from her blog. Gretchen's got tons of useful information in her blog if you scout around a bit. Good luck to your future baking and SMBC making. Please post an update after your next batch!

Oh, I will say that the butter flavor will not go away. If you don't love the taste of butter, SMBC may not be the icing for you. You could then try a boiled icing, like 7 minute frosting. Either way, happy baking!

Pretty sure you can get Crisco in the UK. It is vegetable shortening that is solid at room temperature. Great for seasoning cast iron and pie crusts ;-)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crisco-CR-VEGS-Shortning-453g/dp/B00406WQLQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1452682942&sr=1-1&keywords=crisco

Palm is pretty cheap, even if you buy the RSPO certified stuff (which of course you should): https://www.amazon.com/Grain-Brain-Organic-Palm-shortening/dp/B01AHIACWA/

about $0.40/oz in 5 lb bucket. It's definitely the most expensive oil in my recipe, but I think it's worth it. Since I'll be selling my soap soon, I've done the math and my materials cost including lye and distilled water is about $0.68 per 3.5oz bar, which I'm fine with.

Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Grain-Brain-Organic-Shortening-Natural/dp/B01AHIACWA/?th=1

From what I understand, RSPO is a joke anyway, but it's better than nothing.

Customers who liked Fisting, also liked Crisco

All my research points to them using this stuff which shares more than a few similarities with Olestra which is well known to carpet bomb people, lol

Some oils are just not happily absorbed by the body. I can go there and eat a burger and be fine, for instance. I can eat a taco bell. But give me anything cooked in the grease they use at waffle house and you can set a clock by how fast I drive home.

Sounds like a butter substitute used by restaurants. Here's a link to a similar product.

https://www.amazon.com/Crisco-All-Vegetable-Shortening-16-OZ/dp/B007F1LYWK

.62/oz vs $7.50/oz.

Car oil works fine(Mobile 1, Rotella, etc), Rem oil works fine. Gun oils have more BS than even gas stations and their "special additives"

Try this stuff. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001FA1DG4?pc_redir=1409147346&robot_redir=1

I wish I could give you a decent review of it but I can't. I'm a fairly accomplished baker but for some reason pie crust is my nemesis. I've used this in place of shortening in recipes that call for both butter and shortening/lard - was probably ATK's.

6lb of Fireclean comes out cheaper

Crisco*

Amazon?

https://www.amazon.com/Crisco-All-Vegetable-Shortening-48/dp/B00I8G7L0A/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1517588011&sr=8-1&keywords=crisco

it's just shortening.

For maximum authenticity you're gonna have to get some Whirl

https://www.amazon.com/Whirl-Butter-Alternative-Gallon-Pack/dp/B00BUYTBAA

This

Vegetable shortening. Here.

The shortening may be the only thing you have trouble finding; though you can buy 'crisco' online. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crisco-CR-VEGS-Shortning-450g/dp/B00406WQLQ

Then you can follow this [lovely old grannies recipe.]
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHQ-RhUQkLg)

Might try it myself, see what all the hoorah is about.

I'm not knowledgeable on the subject but if you have prime you could have it by Tuesday for $19. I'm sorry if that's crazy expensive, I don't know anything about the stuff.

https://www.amazon.com/High-Ratio-Shortening-3-lb/dp/B00A0OW6MQ/