At 12:45 PM 11/6/2000 -0600, you wrote:
>Thank you Don M,
You're welcome.

>I live in Western Canada and do not have a Loblaws, Dominion, Sobeys or a
>Coop.

You should have a Safeway then if you're near any decent sized town. Or an
Overwaitea if in BC, who should have it. The big cities have Superstores
which I think carry the lactose free margarines. I live in Alberta in the
city with 'attitude'. I'm sure you can guess <g>.

>Am I to understand that in order for the Margarine to be made into a stick
>form it must have whey in it?

No, but I don't ever think I've seen stick or 1LB hard margarine with no
whey. I've always surmised that the whey had a coagulating effect but that
was pure speculation on my part.

>Has anyone ever baked with shortening instead of butter?   Is there a
difference?

Yes, mainly lack of salt. I assume we're talking vegetable shortening, not
lard. When I use it I can't seem to get the salt distributed evenly so I
stick with soft marg. If you mix the soft marg with a beater, it works
fine. If you melt it, then it doesn't matter what form it started in. It
would make a difference if you were trying to make croissants but that gets
into a much different problem - you don't get anything like a good
croissant with marg.

Don M