Pie Crust
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Sift flour and salt together.
Chop lard into flour with a knife.
Mix the dough
Add ice water a little at a time.
Mix lightly, handling as little as possible.
Leave lard in small lumps for a flaky crust.
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.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the crust once mixed with liquid.
- Lard
- Coats flour so it stays in pockets, creating flakiness and a tender texture.
- Ice water
- Binds the flour into dough while keeping the fat cold and firm.
The step that matters
Mix lightly, handling as little as possible. Overworking dough develops gluten, making the crust tough instead of tender. Leaving lard in small lumps keeps pockets that puff into flakes during baking.
“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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