Margarine will melt in hot water, even faster in hot, soapy water.
You could use lard!
in place of
The usual substitution is 1 stick of margarine in place of 1 stick of butter, as they have approximately the same volume. By weight, this would normally be 1/4 pound for butter, slightly less for margarine. By volume, a stick is about 1/2 cup or 8 tablespoons, or about 118 ml.
You can substitute olive oil for margarine by using exactly the same quantity. They are equivalent in any recipe.
Margarine is shortening and can be used in place of butter or other shortenings in baking, though the flavour won't be the same. In many recipes some feel the best results in texture and flavour are obtained by using butter or half-and-half butter and lard.
You can use margarine (or low fat spread)
A common nondairy ingredient to use in cookie recipes in place of butter is shortening. It will change the texture of the cookie, usually cookies with shortening will be a little chewier than cookies with butter.
There are several fats you can use in baking, if you don't want to use butter. Margarine for example will offer a very good vegetable based substitue, if it is because you are vegetarian. Also any of the non-fat spreads will work ok.
A quick way to soften frozenmargarine or butter is to place it in a microwave oven on low power for a few seconds at a time until it is soft enough. However, if care is not taken in doing this, the result will be a puddle of liquid butter or margarine.
I wouldn't. Margarine is not pure butter or a substitute for any other pure shortening; it is mixed with all kinds of extras and additives and unless you are using a recipe specifically designed for margarine, and preferably a particular brand of margarine, your cookies could end up disappointing. Just use butter, or half-and-half butter and lard for cookies, short pastry and cakes and the end result will be great. Remember, butter-substitute spreads are still, generally speaking, mostly fat and certainly no 'healthier' than pure shortening.
a chemical change take a place
You can use Butter, Margarine, or Lard. These will give you about the same result as using vegetable shortening. Vegetable shortening is pure fat so lard will be a good substitute, butter and margarine have water in them you will need to use a little more and if used in baking they won't produce a crust that is as flaky as shortening would. If you are looking for a healthier/low fat substitution try googleing food substitutions for vegetable shortening. Using certain fruits like apple sauce, bananas and many others as a substitution can work but a very very lesser degree.Clarification:Using butter, margarine or lard will not generally give the same results as using shortening. Shortening is made from hydrogenated vegetable oil, such as soybean oil, butter is made from cream, and margarine is made from various fats and liquids.In some recipes that call for butter or shortening, you can use margarine, but since margarine has a higher water content than butter or shortening, it's not a good idea to use margarine in foods that require a crisp, flaky texture, such as pie crust.