Pie Crusts - shortening, butter or lard

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

I get the best results from lard. And its good in fresh flour tortillas

[The empressof all]

1. Lard, Lard, Lard

and.....if you're lucky enough to really know a butcher you'll use Leaf Lard. Ask your butcher -maybe they will share--but they usually keep it for themselves.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

4. see - I'm tryin to find a great method for the best lard - cause, not only

am I interested in pies - I am looking for the best authentic mexican cooking which means home-made flavorful lard

[supernova]

11. Another vote for Lard

Any baker worth their salt will tell you that Lard makes the best pastries, including pie crust.

If you're worrried about bad cholesterol, Lard fits nicely on the contiuum between butter and olive oil. It has a lot of mono-unsaturated fats.

[BlueHandDuo]

14. Wait until pork shoulder "picnics" go on sale...

...and stock up. There's always a lot of pure fat you can cut off and render. It ends up cheaper than any lard or shortening you can buy, and the meat you end up with is a bonus.

[Dora]

2. I use just butter (frozen solid)

Hard-frozen butter and flour in the food processor. Ratio of one stick butter per cup of flour, but I have reduced the amount of butter before. Only problem is that the raw dough doesn't keep well (it turns grey after a day in the fridge, so you can't make it in advance). I also use very COLD water, one egg, and a teaspoon of vinegar. My crusts are much easier to manage since I discovered the egg/vinegar trick. (And I roll out on a floured tea towel, makes cleanup a snap!)

If you must use solid shortening try palm oil shortening. It's trans-fat free.

I've never tried lard. It sounds like the heroin of fats to me, and I'm just not ready to go there. :-)

[wryter2000]

3. A combination

About 1/3 butter and 1/3 Crisco. Cut in separately. I got the recipe from Flo Braker's The Simple Art of Perfect Baking. It has a great discussion of short pastry.

My grandmother, who made the best pies ever, used lard.

[Lugnut]

5. My aunt also made the best pies

She used lard. I've always used straight Crisco but I think I'll try butter and Crisco as you suggest. It sounds wonderful.

[wryter2000]

6. Combination

I think a lot of recipes call for cutting in the shortening in two steps. The first rather finely and the second step more coarsely. The recipe I use calls for butter in the first step and Crisco in the second step. After reading more in this forum, I'm tempted to go to lard, but I'll still cut the shortening in in two steps.

[wryter2000]

7. PS

That should have been 1/3 butter and 2/3 Crisco. Typo. Sorry.

[Tweed]

8. Buy Jiffy's pie crust

Just add water, it's so easy and so tasty.

[yellowdogintexas]

9. Pillsbury in the red box

but when I make em from scratch, I use Yellow Crisco

but I do have a to die for pastry made w/butter and cream cheese oh boy is it wonderful with a fruit pie

[yellowdogintexas]

10. kosher cooks use rendered chicken fat

and they swear by it.

my granny used lard until she got skeered of cholesterol, and she never made a decent pie crust after that.

of course she lived to be 102....


My mom used crisco and made a perfect crust every time. Practice is the ultimate key to good piedough

[NMDemDist2]

12. crisco and ice water

my grammy put ice cubes in the water before she added it to the crust mix

she swore ice water was the trick and her crusts were the absolute best!

[yellowdogintexas]

13. I agree, liquid must be cold

I chill mine in the freezer or add ice cubes too.

when I don't use Pillsbury in the red box, LOL

[Kali]

16. thats what I do

and in the summer if I'm at all organized I freeze the crisco too - cuts better when its hard.

I imagine lard is the best, it sure makes the best tamales and when Mc Donalds used it for thier fries they were the best.

[Eurobabe]

15. Lard

eom

[carolinalady]

17. pillsbury! LOL! I suck at pie crust. n/t