Vegetable Shortening primary usage is to abbreviate baked goods like pastry and pie crusts to produce a finished product that is supple and flaky. This is achieved by preventing the cohesiveness of wheat gluten strands during mixing. In particular for baking, it is used in place of butter or lard. Vegetable Shortening can help make pie crust flaky, produce more stable icings and frostings, and prevent cookies from spreading excessively when baking. Shortening is a solid fat created by hydrogenating vegetable oil; it has almost no flavor or odor.