Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Pie Crust
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Use 3 caps of sifted flour.
Use 1 cup of butter.
Use 1 tablespoon of salt.
Use nearly a cup of tepid water.
Rub the flour and butter together lightly, adding butter a little at a time until the dough feels greasy.
Add salt before adding butter.
Add a tablespoon of sugar if desired.
Add water little by little, kneading gently until the dough is soft.
Mix all together lightly with hands until moist.
Do not work the dough; simply mix lightly and thoroughly, then dredge the board with flour.
Roll and line the pans
If making two pies, cut the dough into four parts.
Turn the dough onto the board and roll into long thin sheets.
Use as little flour as possible when rolling.
Cut the dough into as many sections as needed for pies, allowing for upper and lower crusts.
Place a sheet of dough over each pie pan and trim the edges.
Fill and bake
Bake lightly in the stove.
Add fruit filling.
Place a thin crust cover over the pies, trim edges, and decorate.
Bake quickly in a hot oven.
Cool the pies.
Sprinkle powdered white sugar when cool.
Lard notes and leftovers
Paste made with lard may be used for meat pies and dumplings, and for stews and chicken when cooked with dumplings.
Only roll the lard paste very thin.
Using lard for pie crust is deprecated.
Crust made with butter will never have the same flavor as one made with lard.
Mixing butter and lard is also condemned.
If any pie crust is left, do not throw it away.
Take bits left from cutting around the edges of the pie pans, roll into small squares, bake lightly, and save for tea or luncheon.
Put a spoonful of orange, pineapple, lemon, or raspberry jelly on each square.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 4 of 6 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Orange | 1 medium (131g) | 62 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
| Pie | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Orange + flourtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,821 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the dough's structure once moistened and worked into a sheet.
- Butter (in the method)
- Adds fat that keeps the crust tender and gives it rich flavor.
- Water
- Hydrates the flour so the dough holds together and becomes pliable.
The step that matters
Mix lightly and do not overwork the dough. Kneading or excessive mixing develops gluten in the flour, which makes the crust tough instead of tender. Mixing just until the dough is moist keeps the fat in small pieces, which gives a flaky texture.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Blueberryfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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