Aeagle.193 net.cooks utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!duke!chico!harpo!mhtsa!eagle!cw Tue Feb 2 14:58:45 1982 Re: pie crust It is the accepted knowledge that animal fats (though not all butter, for some strange reason) make flakier pie crust. They also slightly modify the flavor, for my taste to the better. (If you don't believe, try comparing fresh Mexican taco chips cooked as they should be in lard to taco chips cooked in any other oil.) As to water, the rule always is to add very little and not all at once. Stop adding water as soon as the crust sticks together. Use ice water. Don't use fingers, use a pastry knife. Finally, refrigerate the pastry for an hour before rolling it out. Two more points. I think animal fats are flakier because they are hard fats; for the same reason, they make better french fries when you use the two-steo (that is, two-step) blanching method. Second, my mother used to make pastry by putting the shortening, salt, and flour together in a canister. Whenever she needed a crust, she just scooped out the necessary quantity. The crust was flakier because the oil worked its way between the flour particles over the (relatively) long time between mixing and use. I will get the exact proportions from her if anybody is interested. Notice that you have to make a lot of pie to make this trick worthwhile. ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.