We are all on a quest to save money, to eat better food, and to love lard. Okay, did you just do a double-take? Yes lard is making a comeback and for good reasons. Sweet and savory reasons.
The Perfect pie crust has been an all time favorite article posted here. Readers have had success with it, and have delighted in sharing a home made pie with their families. It works, it's reliable, it's easy. And yet...
The Search for a More Perfect Pie Crust is Irresistible
Sometimes it's ill-advised to mess with perfection. But sometimes, you can't stop yourself from seeing if maybe, just maybe, there's a better recipe out there. Sometimes you get lucky.
When rediscovering a love for baking coincides with the holiday season, perhaps it was inevitable. Experimentation, the quest for an even more perfect pie crust. Trend watchers report that baking at home is on the rise. Now with so many of us tightening our belts, the search for ways to economize might help convince you to try your hand at homemade pie crusts.
Buy vs. Bake
When a store-bought pie dough is so easy to find, you may be thinking, why bother? Two very good reasons include quality and price. Just have a look at the Buy vs. Bake analysis from the Baker's Banter on this pie crust recipe. The Baker's Banter is an excellent blog published by the folks at King Arthur Flour. They share recipes, they answer questions. It's really like having your own baking mentor around. The products are wonderful and the advice is sound. Check out these tidbits from their "Buy vs. Bake" post on pie crusts.
Buy: Pillsbury Just Unroll Pie Crusts, 23¢/ounce
Ingredients include things like:
- Partially Hydrogenated Lard with BHA and BHT Added to Protect Flavor
- Colored with Yellow 5 and Red 40
- Potassium Sorbate and Sodium Propionate (Preservatives)
Bake at home: A Thoroughly Reliable and Tasty Pie Crust, 13¢/ounce
Ingredients in your own homebaked pie crust include things like:
- Flour,
- salt,
- baking powder,
- butter.
You know, things that you actually know and can pronounce. They also call for buttermilk powder which is not hard to find in your local grocery store, also available on their site. Click on the link above for the full recipe and to explore the site.
More Reasons to Try Pie Crust at Home
Now, if you don't find the savings and the ingredients compelling enough, consider this:
Mastery of the basic techniques gives you confidence in the kitchen. Confidence with pie crust opens up a world of recipes you can use to make sweet and savory dishes your family will love.
- pies - sweet, single or double crust
- quiches - omit the sugar and add two tablespoons of wheat flour
- tartelettes - mini tarts are perfect for individual desserts
- pot pies - instead of puff pastry, try this pie crust and roll in some dried herbs
Learning to Love Lard
Most recently, we have begun to return to lard. The word conjures fear but the nutritional science is on our side. Rendered pork fat contains nearly a quarter less saturated fat than butter, more than double the monounsaturated and nearly four times the polyunsaturated fat. If you get your fat from free range, pastured pigs the rendered lard will have higher Omega 3s too.
Lard is not only better for you than transfat-laden shortening, it's tastier too. People are experimenting. This is good. You can even render your own lard from the leaf lard, the fat around the pig's kidney, for a homemade pie crust that will knock your socks off. Try substituting lard for half the butter in your favorite recipe.
Jennifer McLagan wrote the book on fat. Literally. Her book, Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes is the winner of two James Beard Awards, for Best Cookbook of the Year and Best Single Subject Cookbook, and the winner of an IACP Cookbook Award! See the Mclelland website for McLagan's Cassoulet recipe. Here's Ariane Daguin's recipe from her wonderful class at FCI. Daguin says in her native Gascony they have a better cholesterol profile because the fats they use traditionally duck and goose is healthier than others. The profile is more like olive oil.
Now to paraphrase the philosopher king of South Park, Cartman: "Get in the kitchen and bake me some pie!"
Jacqueline Church - Award-winning writer, speaker, teacher on topics at the intersection of gourmet and sustainable food issues.
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