Cooking, frying and baking with vegetable shortening has been common for years, but there still are people will always stick with lard or butter when they're cooking.

And some cooks, such as Chad Vaughan of Big Bear Cafe, wouldn't even consider turning to shortening.

"About 50 years ago everyone used lard, then they came out with vegetable shortening," said Vaughan, owner of the Gainesville restaurant. "Basically what vegetable shortening is ... they heat it and take out the oil. Heated so much that it bends the carbon chain, which takes a nice vegetable oil to something that doesn't even burn."

Vaughan added that even though many vegetable shortening products like Crisco include zero grams of trans fat per serving, he still prefers butter.

"I won't eat the stuff (vegetable shortening) and haven't for 15 years," he said. "We cook our biscuits with real butter ... use real butter for everything."

At Big Bear they use buttermilk, White Lily flour and butter to make their homemade biscuits.

"Anything that God didn't make eventually turns out bad for us," Vaughan said.

But when making biscuits at Loretta's Restaurant in Oakwood, they use pure vegetable shortening.

"We use all-vegetable shortening ... I'm a fan of Bunge," said Alan Nichols, owner of the South Hall eatery. "I like the way it performs and the way it tastes."

And since the restaurant serves from 1,200 to 1,500 biscuits a day, made by three employees, they must go over with customers pretty well.

"We take the extra step; there is no substitute for White Lily flour," said Nichols, who uses Crisco at home for baking.

Lard, which can be purchased at the grocery store, is rendered pork fat; vegetable shortening is hydrogenated vegetable oil. Both are white and have similar consistencies.

Sharon McLeod, dietician with District 2 Public Health, said vegetable shortening and lard are very similar in fat content, but shortening has a longer shelf life. She said she would probably stick to something more natural.

"The chemistry of it (vegetable shortening), the carbon chains are switched," McLeod said. "If you are looking at someone that is a baker, they want the flakiness of shortening or lard in baked goods.

"I went back and did some research, and lard is a form of shortening; and as far as content, lard has got - for a 100-gram portion, which is roughly 3 1/2 ounces - total fat is 100 grams and the saturated fat is 39 grams, monounsaturated is 45 grams and polyunsaturated is 11 grams."

McLeod added that vegetable shortening has 71 grams of total fat, 23 grams saturated fat, 89 grams monounsaturated fat and 37 grams polyunsaturated fat.

"The lard and shortening are pretty much going to be equal," she said. "But lard is going to be harder to come by ... natural lard at least."