Baking – How to substitute for shortening: lard or butter

The best substitute in general for lard would be a combination of vegetable shortening - which is generally hydrogenated palm oil - and butter.

Since this is a vegan substitute, you'll have to just stick to the shortening. That's OK - shortening was quite literally invented to replace lard - but you'll lose a lot of the flakiness and full flavour if you don't mix it with some butter.

For pastry crusts, you might also mix some coconut oil in with the shortening; the flaky texture essentially comes from saturated fats, for which coconut oil ranks pretty highly. Just don't use too much, as it imparts a not-so-subtle flavour of its own.

On first blush, you will probably want a fat or oil with similar qualities as the "vegetable" oil you're replacing, such as olive oil. Butter has a much lower a smoke point, however, cornbread recipes exist that use butter or lard. I'd be willing to experiment, particularly if you're used to cooking with butter. (Just be careful with heat.) As far as quantity, I'd use a bit less than 1/3 of a cup, but that's me being defensive as I don't know the recipe you're using.