No. Lard is animal fat and shortening is vegetable oil that has been hydrogenated.
4 oz
usually, yes. In fact, lard really makes some pastries taste so much better. However, lard is animal fat and therefore, not healthy. If you use it rarely, then enjoy the better taste, but if you cook with it routinely, switch to shortening.
Shortening didn't come about until the 20th century, lard was used in place of shortening because it was what was on hand. When making things like biscuits and cornbreads country cooks often used bacon drippings (grease saved from cooking bacon).
Shortening is the same as lard, so the ratio is 1:1.
Make the pastry using shortening, instead of lard.
Cooking oils, shortening, lard, bacon grease, butter
No, pie crust is one of the things that has to use a solid shortening.
Use the same amount
Lard is the rendered fat of hogs. Shortening is any fat product typically a mixture of different fats.
Recent studies suggest that lard is actually better for health than shortening. Shortening consists primarily of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, which has proven to be very unhealthy for the human body.
Shortening is the lesser of two evils as an ingredient in cookies. It is an acceptable, but not desirable, substitute. Taste and texture are sub-optimum. Lard tends to give cookies an unusual texture, too flaky. Even cutting lard with shortening will not help greatly. However, butter is by far the ideal ingredient to supply the fat in cookies.
Butter, lard, and shortening are the most commonly used ones.