What to use instead of butter
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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Solid fat cut into flour for flaky layers
Cold pieces stay whole in the dough and turn to steam in the oven, prising the layers apart. The fat also coats the flour so the gluten stays short.
LardRan out
3/4 cup lard + 2 tbsp cold water per 1 cup butter
Bigger, more open flakes because lard is pure fat with a wider melting range. Savoury pastry tastes better, sweet pastry tastes faintly of pork.
Vegetable shorteningDairy-free
1 cup shortening + 2 tbsp cold water per 1 cup butter
Stays workable at room temperature so the dough is forgiving. Almost no flavour and no browning, and the crust feels waxy on the tongue when cold.
Refined coconut oil, chilled hardPlant-based
3/4 cup + 1 tbsp coconut oil + 2 tbsp cold water per 1 cup butter
Melts at about 24C, so it goes soft in your hands and brittle in the fridge. Work fast and cold and the flakes come out short and crisp.
Block plant butter, the firm foil-wrapped kindPlant-based
1:1 by weight
Layers fine. Browns paler on top because there are no milk solids, and the finished pastry tastes a little salty.
What doesn't work: Oil. It coats every flour particle evenly instead of sitting in lumps, so there is nothing to steam apart. You get a sandy short crust with zero flakes. Tub margarine fails the same way and its extra water toughens the dough on top.
Browning fat in a pan
The milk solids toast around 150C and go nutty, and the water content gives you a foaming stage that tells you how hot the pan is.
GheeRan out
1:1
Already browned, so the nutty flavour arrives immediately and it will not burn as fast. No foaming stage to read the pan by.
Duck fat or beef tallowRan out
1:1
Savoury and heavier, holds up to higher heat, sets firm on the plate as it cools. Wrong under anything sweet.
Bacon fatRan out
1:1
Brings salt and smoke with it, so take the salt back out of the dish. Browns fast because of the sugars in the cure.
What doesn't work: Plant butter or olive oil. Neither has milk solids, so there is nothing to toast. Plant butter separates into oil and water and olive oil simply gets hot. You can heat both until they smoke and still have no brown butter.
Creamed with sugar for lift in cakes and cookies
Beating solid butter with sugar drags the sugar crystals through the fat and each one cuts an air pocket. Those pockets are what the leavener expands in the oven.
Block plant butter at 18CPlant-based
1:1 by weight
Creams almost the same. Softer at room temperature so cookies spread wider, and the crumb browns paler.
Vegetable shorteningDairy-free
1 cup shortening + 2 tbsp water per 1 cup butter
Holds more air than butter, so cookies stay tall and cakey. Pale, and the flavour is flat unless something else is carrying it.
Refined coconut oil, solid at 20CPlant-based
3/4 cup + 1 tbsp per 1 cup butter
Whips up light but sets hard, so cookies eat crisp and cold and go greasy the moment they warm in your hand.
What doesn't work: Melted butter or oil in a recipe that says cream the butter and sugar. There is no solid structure to hold air, so nothing gets whipped in. Cookies spread flat and greasy and cakes come out squat and dense.
Salted butter carries roughly 1/3 tsp of salt per stick, so take that off the recipe when you swap it in.