The Lard Tub Pie Crust Recipe

This is the pie crust recipe found on a tub of hydrogenated lard. It is the simplest recipe I've found for pie crusts and it is surprisingly the best pie crust I've ever had actually. If you are a gen-x aged person like me you may have had a grandma that made pies with crusts that seem exceptional by today's standards. The secret is lard. Food.com has a very nice and useful guide to making a butter based crust, but it will never live up to the lard tub recipe. You may be thinking hydrogenated lard?? That sounds like death in every bite! We'll I won't sell this as a health food that's for sure, when have you ever eaten pie because of its healthy qualities?

• Ready In: 4 hrs
• Serves: 24
• Yields: 3 regular 9 inch crusts

Ingredients

• 3  cups all-purpose flour
• 1  cup  room temperature  lard
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons salt
• 1⁄3 cup water

Directions

1. Check your lard, it should have no smell or taste, if it does, it is probably rancid.
2. Get a large size bowl and add your flour and salt.
3. Take your cup of lard and put it in the bowl a spoonful at a time.
4. Cover the bits of lard with flour from the bowl.
5. Cut the lard into the flour with a sturdy pastry cutter (Get one with ridged blades if you can) to pea sized bits.
6. Dribble the water into the mixture all at once.
7. Use your hand to work the water into the dough, I like to scoop the mixture from the edges and smoosh it in the center of the bowl.
8. You are done mixing when the mixture will stick together as a complete blob. It is like making biscuits don't overwork the dough.
9. Form a ball and weigh it on a scale, mine weighed about 600 grams.
10. You might want to clean your hands for the next step. Get some cellophane wrap ready.
11. Divide the ball into three little balls each a third of the total weight of the original (about 200 grams). Wrap the 3 balls in the cellophane wrap. Put in the fridge, ideally for 24 hours, but 4 hours is fine.