Further, there are grocery staples that are fats, such as butter, margarine products, shortening and oil. Fats serve a variety of functions in foods. Their unique mouth-feel supplies the rich, smooth, creamy sensation that distinguishes many foods. Fats also absorb and blend ingredient flavors and aromas to produce the distinct taste of individual foods. In baked goods such as cakes, fats help produce a high, fine texture.
Fats also help keep doughs and batters from separating and falling.
And fats coat the proteins in flour to make a tender or flaky product. While butter, shortening, margarine products and oil contain fat, each have different properties that affect how they work. Thus, they produce different results that can be key to the acceptance of many foods. As every cook knows, shortening works best for some types of baking. As a result, shortening produces tender, flaky pie crusts and biscuits.