Crisco and butter each carry real tradeoffs, and neither one is a clear winner for health. Crisco has less saturated fat per tablespoon (3.5 grams versus about 7 grams in butter), which looks better on a nutrition label. But Crisco is a heavily processed product, while butter is a whole food with nutrients that shortening lacks entirely. The better choice depends on what you’re cooking, how much you’re using, and which health risks matter most to you.
Fat Breakdown: What’s Actually in Each
A tablespoon of Crisco (12 grams) is almost pure fat: 3.5 grams saturated, 6 grams polyunsaturated, and 2.5 grams monounsaturated. It contains no cholesterol, no protein, and essentially no vitamins.
A tablespoon of butter (about 14 grams) contains roughly 7 grams of saturated fat, 3 grams of monounsaturated fat, and less than half a gram of polyunsaturated fat. It also has about 30 milligrams of cholesterol. But butter brings things Crisco doesn’t: vitamin A, small amounts of vitamins D, E, and K, and a compound called butyrate that supports gut health. Grass-fed butter goes further, with research from Penn State showing that pasture-raised cows produce milk fat with two to four times more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a fatty acid linked to reduced inflammation and improved body composition in some studies.
Saturated Fat Isn’t the Whole Story
The main health argument for Crisco is its lower saturated fat content. Saturated fat does raise LDL cholesterol, the type associated with heart disease. But the picture is more nuanced than “saturated fat is bad.” Research published in Open Heart (BMJ) found that saturated fat tends to increase the large, buoyant form of LDL rather than the small, dense particles that are more strongly linked to artery damage. Saturated fat also raises HDL, the protective form of cholesterol.
That doesn’t make saturated fat harmless. The same research noted that diets high in butter and cream, and low in monounsaturated fats like olive oil, may increase the risk of particles penetrating artery walls and triggering the process that leads to atherosclerosis. But it does mean that swapping butter for Crisco isn’t automatically a cardiovascular upgrade, especially when Crisco’s polyunsaturated fats come with their own concerns.
The Processing Problem With Crisco
Crisco is made from soybean oil, palm oil, or a blend of vegetable oils that have been hydrogenated or interesterified to turn them solid at room temperature. While modern Crisco contains far less trans fat than it did before its 2007 reformulation (the label now reads 0 grams per serving, though trace amounts below 0.5 grams don’t have to be listed), the processing itself is worth understanding.
To stay solid and shelf-stable, Crisco also includes mono- and diglycerides, which are emulsifiers that prevent oil from separating and improve texture. These additives are considered safe by food regulators, but they’re a reminder that Crisco is an industrial product engineered for consistency, not nutrition. Butter’s ingredient list, by comparison, is typically cream and salt.
Vegetable oils do contain small amounts of plant sterols, compounds that compete with cholesterol for absorption in your digestive system and can modestly lower cholesterol levels. However, the amounts naturally present in shortening are too small to produce a meaningful effect. You’d need concentrated plant sterol supplements or fortified foods to see the cholesterol-lowering benefits documented in clinical research.
High-Heat Cooking Performance
One area where Crisco has a genuine advantage is high-temperature cooking. Crisco shortening has a smoke point around 440°F to 490°F depending on the formulation, while butter starts smoking at roughly 350°F. When fats are heated past their smoke point, they break down and release compounds that taste bad and may be harmful.
This makes Crisco a more practical choice for deep frying or high-heat sautéing. Butter works well for baking, lower-temperature cooking, and finishing dishes. If you want butter flavor at higher temperatures, clarified butter (ghee) pushes the smoke point up to about 450°F by removing the milk solids that burn first.
Which One to Use and When
If your main concern is heart health, the honest answer is that neither Crisco nor butter should be your primary cooking fat. Olive oil and avocado oil offer monounsaturated fats with the strongest evidence for cardiovascular benefit. But most people aren’t choosing between shortening and olive oil. They’re deciding what goes into a pie crust or a batch of cookies.
For baking, Crisco produces flakier pastry because it has no water content (butter is about 15 to 17 percent water), but butter delivers better flavor. Many bakers split the difference and use both. For everyday cooking, butter in moderate amounts provides real nutrients and flavor that Crisco simply doesn’t offer. If you’re frying at high heat, Crisco handles the temperature better.
The quantity you use matters more than which one you pick. A tablespoon of butter on your toast or a tablespoon of Crisco in a recipe that serves eight people is a small part of your overall diet. The broader pattern of your fat intake, especially whether you’re getting enough monounsaturated and omega-3 fats from sources like fish, nuts, and olive oil, has a far larger impact on your health than the butter-versus-Crisco question on its own.