I dont under stand why you need pie weights/ beans... my homemade crust never seems to puff up.

The BEST lard is "leaf lard" - it comes from a particular art of a pig. But good luck finding it. I have asked every person who sells pork at a number of farmers' markets and they all say the same thing, sorry I already have customers who buy all that I can harvest.

Anonymous wrote:This is my mom's recipe and I believe it is the absolute best. You need half butter for flavor and half Crisco or good quality lard for texture. Martha Stewart is not good at all! I have that book and the fillings are great but forget the crust.
2 C flour
1/3 C butter
1/3 C Crisco or lard
1 tsp salt
5-7 T ice water

You can do the flour, salt, and fat in the food processor but mix in the drops of ice water by hand, gently tossing the crumbles with a fork. Then press together gently into two discs and chill. It will be crumbly and difficult to work with and it takes a lot of practice to make it pretty but it's so good!

This is the best. All butter is hard and not flaky, and all lard is flaky but not flavorful (or tastes slightly of bacon!). All Crisco is good but I am done with factory food. Half butter, half lard is the best!

I use the Flaky Pastry Dough recipe from the Joy of Cooking and do half crisco, half butter. Watch out when it is really humid outside, though, it makes the crust harder to control.

I really like this butter pie crust from Smitten Kitchen.
http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/11/pie-crust-102-all-butter-really-flaky-pie-dough/

I think Crisco crusts are tasteless. I like Martha Stewart's recipe that uses all butter. It is flaky and delicious and perfect. It's really easy to make if you have a food processor.

Seriously, your crust is going to taste like what you put into it. What do you think tastes better, Crisco or butter?

Using crisco is disgusting. Leaf lard and butter make a good crust. Butter alone is fine.

Crisco is barely even food.

I think the awesome flakey yuminesss of a great pie crust is much more about your cooking technique than the fat. I'm not expert at it myself yet. But, the key is getting the get down to just the right size. You want little tiny fat globules that will melt during cooking.

Make sure your butter or lard stays cold. Don't skimp on any steps in the refrigerator. Use cold water or milk to bind. Any melting before you cook will just create a paste, rather than the proper flour matrix.

Also, you can't reroll or do too much handworking with the final crust. Melting is an issue, as well as developing the gluten in the flour. This leads to chewiness rather than flakiness.

Your looking for leaf lard. It's THE best lard you can get. Generally from the butcher. The reviews are varied as to if it makes a better crust as opposed to all butter. I personally always did butter. But after an episode on unique sweets featuring a half and half lard and butter crust I'm venturing out to try it! Good luck!

Check this out, OP--recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum and info on leaf lard.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/2006/11/tubolard_virgin.html