[ shôrtn-ng, shôrtnng ] n.
1. A fat, such as butter or lard, used to make cake or pastry light or flaky.2. A shortened form of something, as a word.
3. The act of one that shortens.
4. The act or process of becoming shorter.
I always wondered what definition 1 had to do with any of the others, and I heard a plausible explanation today. The reason that shortening makes pastry flaky is that it inhibits the formation of long gluten strands by keeping water away from gluten’s component proteins. The claim I heard today is that shortening arose from the shortening of the strands.
This explanation leaves me a little troubled, though. http://www.etymonline.com has short meaning "easily crumbled" going back to the 15th century. Although this is a new sense of the word for me, it seems likely that shortening would come from this sense of short. I find it hard to believe that anyone knew about gluten formation way back then…
