can lard be substituted for the vegetable shortening ?

Or you can sub tallow. You can also vary the butter ratio. Kenji's recipe specs 6 parts butter to 4 shortening. I'm happiest with 7 parts butter and 3 lard.

I've also substituted coconut oil in this recipe pretty successfully. I scale back a bit on the fat and increase the liquid when I'm going to parbake the crust or I find it shrinks more than I'm okay with.

They are interchangeable. But you wouldn't want to choose lard if you were baking for Jews or Muslims...