How is pastry made from lard different to pastry made from marge?

Answer 1

Margarine is typically a hydrogenated oil whereas lard is a solid animal fat. In my experience, pastries made from margarine tend not to puff as high, be quite as flakey or tender, and not have as rich a flavor as those made with real butter or lard. Think of how your recipes would turn out if you used say, canola oil instead of the solid fats. Oil can't hold air well, and it's 100% fat, whereas butter might have 80% fat, some water, some milk solids... That other stuff gives it the ability to do all the cool stuff it does. Vegetable shortening behaves very much like lard and butter if you want the same properties but not the "meaty" flavor. If you're reformulating a recipe with lard to be vegetarian or vegan, I'd recommend starting with a vegetable shortening. Many margarines still have milk ingredients and those that don't, don't really give you the same results. Hope this helps!