Convert butter to shortening or shortening to butter, with the exact water adjustment needed to keep your recipe's moisture balanced.
You will need:
1.00 Cups
Shortening+ Add 2.0 Tablespoons of Water
Pro Tip: Shortening is 100% fat, while butter contains about 20% water. When replacing butter with shortening, you must add 2 tablespoons of water (or milk) for every cup of shortening used to maintain the correct moisture in your bake.
Last updated: August 2026
Substituting Butter and Shortening
Baking is a science, and swapping fats can dramatically alter the texture and flavor of your cookies, pie crusts, and cakes. Our Butter and Shortening Converter works in both directions, so you can make the swap mathematically correct whichever way your recipe needs.
The Golden Rule of Butter Substitution
Butter is approximately 80% fat and 20% water (and milk solids). Shortening is 100% pure fat. When a recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, the author is relying on that 20% water content to create steam in the oven, which gives baked goods their lift and structure.
If you replace 1 cup of butter with 1 cup of shortening, you lose that crucial moisture. That's why the calculator adds 2 tablespoons of water for every cup of butter you're replacing — matching the ratio printed on Crisco's own conversion chart.
Worked Example
Say your recipe calls for 1.5 cups of butter and you only have shortening on hand. Entering 1.5 in the calculator (with "Butter to Shortening" selected) gives you 1.5 cups of shortening, plus 3 tablespoons of water(1.5 cups × 2 tablespoons per cup) to make up for the moisture butter would have provided.
Going the other way, if a recipe calls for 2 cups of shortening and you want to use butter instead, switch to "Shortening to Butter" and enter 2. You'll get 2 cups of butter— no water adjustment needed, since butter already carries its own moisture.
How it affects your baking
Using All Butter: Unmatched rich flavor. Cookies spread more and have crispy edges because butter melts faster in the oven.
Using All Shortening: No buttery flavor. Cookies bake taller, softer, and more tender because shortening holds its shape longer in the heat.
The 50/50 Split: Professional bakers often use half butter and half shortening to get the best of both worlds: buttery flavor with a tall, soft texture.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you can substitute shortening for butter in a 1:1 ratio. However, because shortening is 100% fat and butter is about 80% fat and 20% water, you should add 2 tablespoons of water or milk for every cup of shortening to maintain the correct moisture level.
Yes, you can substitute butter for shortening in a 1:1 ratio. You do not need to subtract any liquid, but your baked goods may spread a little more and end up with crispier edges, since butter has a lower melting point than shortening.
Butter provides a richer, dairy flavor and crispier edges, while shortening has a higher melting point, resulting in taller, softer, and more tender baked goods (like cookies or pie crusts). Many bakers use a 50/50 blend of both to get a buttery flavor with a taller, softer texture.
If your recipe calls for salted butter and you're substituting an unsalted shortening, consider adding a small pinch of salt (roughly 1/4 teaspoon per cup of shortening) to keep the flavor balanced. This isn't required if your recipe already calls for unsalted butter or adds its own salt separately.
No. The 1:1 ratio holds at any measurement: 1 tablespoon of butter converts to 1 tablespoon of shortening plus a small proportional splash of water, and 1 stick of butter (1/2 cup) converts to 1/2 cup of shortening plus 1 tablespoon of water. Enter your amount in cups above (using decimals for partial cups, like 0.5) and the calculator scales the water addition automatically.
You can absolutely do a partial swap. Just run the amount of butter you're replacing through the calculator to find the matching shortening and water amounts, then use your recipe's original butter for the rest.
The cup-for-cup ratio and water adjustment get the moisture and fat content close to equivalent, but butter and shortening still behave differently in the oven: butter melts at a lower temperature, which is why butter-based cookies spread more and shortening-based ones bake taller and hold their shape.
