"It is satisfying to have a ball of pastry in the refrigerator"

Babe gives paws down to our first full batch of homemade lard (lower left) . . . He went in full throttle but recoiled once he had a taste. Cruelty to animals?

"My advice would be to check out Fannie Farmer," counsels our pie-crust consultant, Mother of All Pastries and Keeper of the Secret Recipes. Which we did, and how sweet it is. "Perfect pastry is a triumph . . . It is satisfying to have a ball of pastry in the refrigerator, ready for hurry-up desserts, cocktail snacks and meat or chicken pies," counsels Fannie:

Plain Pastry

Measure accurately until you can judge by the "feel." Work very quickly and with a light touch. Sift into a mixing bowl

2 cups pastry flour or 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

Add 2/3 cup vegetable shortening or lard or 1/3 cup lard and 1/3 cup butter. [YES!!!]

Mix (cut in) with a pastry blender, blending fork or two knives (one in each hand) until the mixture is in even bits about the size of peas. (Old-fashioned cooks use their fingers and work very quickly so that the shortening does not soften.)

Put in a cup 1/3 cup ice water

Sprinkle it over the flour by tablespoonfuls, stirring it in with a fork until just enough has been added so that you can pat the dough lightly into a ball. Handle the dough as little as possible and do not knead it.

Wrap the dough in wax paper and roll and chill it. Enough for a 9-inch two-crust pie or a one-crust pie and some tarts.

It took hours, running back and forth between computer and stove when the timer went off every 10 minutes, and now we are wicked proud of our totally awesome mound of pure, unhydrogenated lard. Tomorrow the world pie.

Some tarts? Yes! Girls just wanna have fun. We've got the lard (above photo) in the larder. A pie -- either apple or pumpkin -- is in the offing. Words and pictures and calorie counts to come.

Update: Pajamas Media links.

Comments

[Derrick Schneider]

Congrats on making the lard! You're prompting me to make another big batch.

[Joan]

Marion Cunningham's The Fannie Farmer Baking Book taught me how to make pies more than 20 years ago, and I still rely upon it. It's my baking bible.

I eagerly await your results. I've been working with the new non-hydrogenated shortenings (palm oil) from Spectrum Organics -- don't believe the Crisco label, which relies on rounding down the measurements in the very small portion size to get to that "no trans fat" fib. Pie pastry made with palm oil shortening seems more tender and a bit more finicky to work with, but it is delightfully flaky -- if the butter/lard combination yields a dough that can handle more manipulation, I'll be giving that a try very soon.

BTW -- what sort of flour? I always use King Arthur white all purpose for pie crusts, I like the higher protein content and the fact that it is not bleached or bromated.

[goomp]

No comments today. Too many cooks spoil the pie crust. Wink, wink.

[Sissy Willis]

Derrick: How thrilling to be an inspiration for the Lord of Lard . . . Your Rendering Lard 2.0 -- I found it by googling -- was indeed an inspiration to me.

Joan: Thank you for your interesting and helpful lore. I cropped it out of that picture of Baby Cakes, but a package of King Arthur all-purpose white is standing by on the kitchen counter just to the left of the lard.

Goomp: I'll look for your comments after you've tasted the pie. :-)

[Teresa]

The thing I've found ultimately frustrating up here in the Northeast is that I can't find Lard in stores. I was always able to find it in the Midwest (not lots but they did have some). I think I'll have to order it online... I bet it's out there, cause I'm not as ambitious as Sissy. *grin*

"Leaf Lard" is much better for pie making than Crisco or any other substitute. And years ago Julia Child denounced the move to vegetable type oil to fry things like french fries, saying (quite rightly) that the taste was just not the same and if you don't stuff yourself with fried foods, using lard is not a bad thing.

I started using lard after dropping additives - read the label of a box of lard and read the label on Crisco - you'll see why - even though I grew up with my mom using Crisco for everything.