[islander]

Does anyone know what exactly high-ratio shortening is and if I could substitute Crisco in place of it in a recipe? Thanks.

[Kimmie]

Try this. It's a start:
http://food.orst.edu/g/jooste/rev5.html

[thebighat]

Hi ratio shortening sold by Proctor and Gamble to professional chefs comes in two forms that I'm aware of, liquid called Nutex and solid called Sweetex. Regular shortening is called Primex. The difference between it and regular shortening is that it contains microemulsifiers that allow a batter to hold more sugar and liquid. Most cakes will always have more flour than sugar, but one with more sugar than flour is a high ratio cake. This kind of batter will also hold more liquid, and we all know the two cheapest things a baker can sell are air and water. Look at the label on a can of crisco-- see that.. it says mono- and diglycerides. Those are microemulsifiers. So I'd say depending at what you are doing with it, you might get away with substituting. Except for Nutex. I don't think crisco can fill in for that in a cake. And if you find some, I have formulas. Surprisingly, P&G won't give you any.

[angrychef]

Big hat, have you used Nutex in recipes other than hi-ratio cakes? I'd be interested if you have any. We use Fluid Flex mainly for our yellow and chocolate cakes. I have heard that you can improve the shelf-life of poundcakes and butter cakes with a small portion of liquid shortening.

[thebighat]

No, I never heard of doing that. I don't use Nutex much because I prefer chiffon cakes and any cake I make has a shelf life of one day only where I work. I wonder if you could get the same results by using Nulomoline as a percentage of the sugar in your cakes.

[islander]

Thank you Kimmie and TheBigHat for your responses. I appreciate your time in helping me solve this problem and finally learning about this. Thanks again. SusanM

[SWill]

Thanks to all of you for this enlightenment. I have a problem in baking class (I am a rank beginner) and twice could not get my high-ratio liquid shortening cake to come out. I was told by my instructors to substitute canola oil for high-ratio liquid shortening (as we did not have this product) but am beginning to think this may be one source of my problems. I'd never even heard of high-ratio liquid shortening until this week but it is reminding me more of chemistry class and Dr. Frankenstein's monster than baking every day....

Can canola oil be substituted and, if so, what techniques would it take to make it work? I understand the beating process and length of time needed given the intent of the oil. On my second attempt I followed the formula and instructions to a "t" (with the exception of the canola oil substitute) and, in addition to some other issues (it sat too long due to scaling and pan issues - due to lack of the needed pan size) the product came out pretty tough.

Any help would be appreciated. I would really like to pass this class. Thanks.