"Shortnin' Bread" (also spelled "Shortenin' Bread", "Short'nin' Bread", or "Sho'tnin' Bread") is an American folk song dating back at least to 1900, when James Whitcomb Riley published it as a poem. While there is speculation that Riley may have based his poem on an earlier African-American plantation song, no definitive evidence of such an origin has yet been uncovered. A "collected" version of the song was published by E. C. Perrow in 1915. It is song number 4209 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

Shortening bread refers to a bread made of corn meal and lard shortening, with or without flour.

The origin of "Shortnin' Bread" is obscure. Despite speculation of African-American roots, it is possible that it may have originated with Riley as a parody of an African-American plantation song, in the minstrel or coon song traditions popular at the time.

Riley titled the song "A Short'nin' Bread Song—Pieced Out", and wrote the first verse as:

Fotch dat dough fum the kitchin-shed
Rake de coals out hot an' red
Putt on de oven an' putt on de led
Mammy's gwiner cook som short'nin' bread

The dialect rendered into common English would be:

Fetch that dough, from the kitchen shed
Rake those coals out, hot and red
Put on the oven and put on the lid
Mommy's going to cook some short'nin' bread

The verse includes: