I have an entire cookbook full of recipes written by generations of women who came before me. This book was written when I was about seven years old. I have made many of these recipes with my mother, grandmother, and even my great grandmother, as well as on my own. So, when I was trying to decide on my favorite one, the decision was a daunting one. But the recipe I am excited to share with you is versatile in so many ways! It is, in my opinion, the perfect pie crust recipe!
A pie crust might seem like a simple and uncomplicated thing. But have you ever bitten into a pie and felt the flaky goodness of the perfect crust? Or maybe you've bitten into a store-bought pie and just ate the filling because the crust texture was just off? An apple pie without a crust is really just chunky applesauce. A quiche without a crust is really just baked scrambled eggs. Having a flavorful crust with the perfect flaky texture is vital to any pie recipe! But the beauty of this recipe is that even if you just bake it on its own, it still tastes amazing!
While the ingredients may be simple, there is still history to be learned from them. Each ingredient serves its purpose.
Originally it is believed that pie crusts were likely filled with more savory ingredients, like meat. Can you imagine a pie with a chicken leg sticking out, almost like a handle for you to grab a hold of? Quite a mental image isn't it?! Well, let me show you how rich of a history a few simple ingredients can have.
Flour
The first ingredient is flour. Traditionally wheat flour is used to make pie crusts. It is beloved that baking flour originated approximately thirty two thousand years ago, in the area currently known as southern Italy. The earliest forms of flour would have been ground with a mortar and pestle. Thousands of years later, the Romans mastered the rotary mill for grinding wheat into flour. These products would not have looked much like the flour we use today. In the latter part of the 1900's Edmund LaCroix, an American inventor, created a filter of sorts to separate the particulates from the fluffy white flour. Only later did we discover that removing all of those particulates actually removed most of the nutrients from the flour. So we began enriching our flour with the nutrients we previously removed. I think that says quite a bit about our food production history in the United States. Most modern flour is grown in Europe, India, the Middle East, North Africa, and North America. It is then ground in large mills and packaged for retail sale. (Cellone & Cellone, 2022) , (Sorangel Rodriguez-Velazquez. (2017, October 1)
Personal Note: I try to use organic ingredients whenever possible. But I have not attempted any gluten-free or alternative flours in this recipe.
Shortening
This plant-based fat is solid at room temperature, similar to lard or tallow, containing minuscule if any water. Shortening was actually created as a way to use massive amounts of unused cottonseed oil. Proctor and Gamble then released it to the public in 1911. Shortening was originally touted as a healthier substitute for lard or tallow. But we later discovered that hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils used were much more harmful to the body. I personally use an organic shortening version made with sustainably sourced and fair trade palm oil.
(Clayvessel, Melissa, Eagle, A., Merkerson, D. A., Lisa, & Churchill, D. (2016, August 30)
Personal Note: The only reason I still use shortening at all is that it helps the crust reach a flaky consistency point without getting overly brown or burnt. I have not yet tried organic lard or tallow in any sweet pie crusts. But I have replaced it with tallow in a pot pie crust.
Butter
Butter adds flavor to pie crusts that you can't get with any other substitution. It is believed that the earliest form of butter was discovered accidentally by an African goat farmer, around 8000BC. Talk about a tasty mistake when he discovered the curdled delight that replaced his goat milk. Most butter, in modern times, is made from cow's milk. But the earliest forms of butter were made from the milk of yaks, goats, and sheep. Most butter now is made in large processing facilities, but there are still a few artisan dairies that make butter from their own cows. (Reiter, A. (2017, March)
Eggs
An egg consists mostly of moisture, protein, and fat. Usually, the only type of eggs you will find in a grocery store come from chickens. Around 3000 years ago, in China, they began breeding chickens. Most commercial eggs are produced in massive farming facilities where the hens are kept in uncomfortably close quarters and rarely if ever see the light of day. The eggs are then cleaned and refrigerated to maintain freshness. These eggs do not contain the same level of nutrients as chickens raised on pastures that are allowed to free range daily. Pasture-raised hens produce eggs with higher vitamin E and omega 3 fatty acids than chickens raised in a commercial processing center. (Mulhollem, J. (n.d.). (july 26, 2010)
Personal Note: I do my best to source my eggs as locally as possible. When I can't find local eggs, I make sure the eggs I buy come from pasture-raised chickens.
Salt
The earliest salt collection is believed to have come from Lake Yuncheng, in China, around 6000BC. It is believed that the earliest use for salt was likely to preserve fish. But there have been hundreds of foods preserved with salt since the early Chinese began collecting it. Most salt manufactured to day is produced from rock salt mining. But there is still some salt produced by seawater and brine collection methods. The largest producer of salt is China followed by the United States. Salt is then packed into cartons or cans and labeled for retail sale. (Osborne Wood, F., & Ralston, R. H.), (Melissa. (2014, January 13).
Personal Note: Normally I use either iodized table salt or kosher salt for baking.
I suppose after my little history lesson you're ready to make a pie crust!
Just make sure that no matter what you fill your crust with, make sure you always add a
whole lot of love to the mix! Love makes everything taste better!
Pie Pastry
3 C. flour 1 ½ tsp salt
¾ C. Shortening 1/3 C. cold water
¾ C. cold Butter 1 tsp. Vinegar
1 egg
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In a sturdy mixing bowl, mix together flour and salt.
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Use a a pastry cutter or a fork to cut the shortening and butter into the flour.
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Beat an egg in a small bowl, then add vinegar to egg and stir.
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Sprinkle egg mixture over the flour/fat mixture and mix with a fork until everything is absorbed.
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Place in a covered bowl or plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes before rolling out your dough.
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Adding a little love into everything I make adds that extra something special that somehow always makes everything taste a little better.
Edits I have made;
Original recipe calls for 1 ½ C shortening or 1 C lard. I have edited this to ¾ C shortening and ¾ C butter. This gives you a flaky texture that usually comes only from shortening and adds butter to improve the flavor of the crust.
I have had someone tell me that their mother owned a bakery and my pie crusts were better than hers!
Source list
- <a href="https://www.vecteezy.com/free-photos">Free Stock photos by Vecteezy</a>.
- Sorangel Rodriguez-VelazquezAmerican University. (2017, October 1). 2.2: The history of wheat flour. Chemistry LibreTexts; Libretexts. https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Biological_Chemistry/Chemistry_of_Cooking_(Rodriguez-Velazquez)/02%3A_Flour/2.02%3A_The_History_of_Wheat_Flour
- Cellone, N., & Cellone, N. (2022, July 11). The history of flour - cellone’s Italian Bread Co. - blog post. Cellone’s Italian Bread Co. https://cellones.com/the-history-of-flour/
- Clayvessel, Melissa, Eagle, A., Merkerson, D. A., Lisa, & Churchill, D. (2016, August 30). The rise and fall of Crisco. The Weston A. Price Foundation. https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/modern-foods/the-rise-and-fall-of-crisco/#gsc.tab=0
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Reiter, A. (2017, March). How butter was born - and why it spread. Food Network. https://www.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/news/2017/03/how-butter-was-born-and-why-it-spread
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Egg: Baking ingredients. BAKERpedia. (2021, August 20). https://bakerpedia.com/ingredients/egg/
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Mulhollem, J. (n.d.). (july 26, 2010) Research shows eggs from pastured chickens may be more nutritious. Penn State News. Retrieved July 19, 2023, from https://www.psu.edu/news/agricultural-sciences/story/research-shows-eggs-pastured-chickens-may-be-more-nutritious/
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Osborne Wood, F., & Ralston, R. H. (n.d.). Salt manufacture. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/salt/Salt-manufacture
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Melissa. (2014, January 13). The fascinating early history of salt. Today I Found Out. http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/01/fascinating-early-history-salt/
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