Food Fight

Which shortening is best for pie crust?

First of all, let's say a few kind words about lard. My dear grandmother (who lived to age 90) always used it in cooking and pastry making. When she was a girl, her family rendered their own lard when they slaughtered pigs, collecting and melting the slabs of fat, straining the fat through layers of cheesecloth, and storing it in crocks in their cool cellar. They also made their own butter on the farm, but lard was the preferred shortening for pie crusts and biscuits. Butter went into cakes, cookies, and other sweets.

Some cooks still swear by lard. Its crystalline structure helps to create flakier crusts than either butter or vegetable shortening can do. Since it is a solid fat, you can use slightly less of it than butter (4/5 cup lard is the equivalent of 1 cup butter).

Good quality lard is nearly tasteless. It works easily into flour and makes an easy-to-handle pie crust. If you have never tried using lard, give it a whirl at least once.

Others swear by butter, which is probably the choice of many professional bakers. Butter creates a sweet, full flavor. It is somewhat harder to work with than lard, and in the wrong hands can lead to a tough crust.

Solid vegetable shortening, like lard, yields pastry that is easy to handle. It is made from hydrogenated oils, which are now thought to be even less good for you than lard or butter (not that anyone eats pie for health reasons, although a piece is always good for your mental health!). Some bakers think vegetable shortening gives an off-taste to pies, but taste is a personal thing.

Oil is only rarely used for pie crust because it gives pastry a mealy texture rather than a flaky one. However, it will work in a pinch.

Personally, I prefer butter, with lard a close second. Vegetable shortening? I never touch the stuff.

Want to weigh in on this Food Fight, or suggest another topic? Write to Foodfight@digitalhearth.com. We'd like to hear from you!

Last Bite

Sunday Supper

When you look at a calendar, Sunday is usually positioned as the first day of the week. Occasionally you find a calendar that joins Sunday to Saturday at the end of the row. When I find one of those calendars, I buy it, because I think of Sunday as the end of the week. To me, the week begins when the alarm goes off on Monday morning.

That makes Sunday supper the last official meal of the week. Some cooks might take that as a challenge and come up with a Grand Finale, a fabulous meal to mark the end of the week. I tend to go the other way: I'm out of ideas, the refrigerator is full of odd leftovers, I'm preoccupied with the complexities of the week ahead. Here are some of the foods that have passed for Sunday supper at our house:

• Bowls of cereal.
• Popcorn (a New England tradition).
• Cheese and crackers (sometimes accompanied by a jar of herring in cream sauce).
• A jar of pickled beets (OK, no one else was home).

When I go all out, it's usually something along the line of French toast, pancakes, or waffles. Recently my friend Mare-Anne gave me a recipe for Finnish oven pancakes, called Pannukakku, which are even less work that regular pancakes and come out of the oven beautifully puffed. She often adds sliced apples or pears to the batter. We serve them with applesauce and plain yogurt, and plenty of maple syrup. You may know this recipe as Dutch Baby. Whatever you call it, it fixes you right up for the week to come.

Finnish Pancakes (Pannukakku)

4 tablespoons butter
6 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup flour
dash of salt
3-1/2 cups milk
apple or pear slices (optional)
sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place two 9” cast-iron skillets in the oven. Meanwhile, beat together the eggs, sugar, flour, salt, and milk. When the skillets are hot, divide the butter between them, let it melt, and divide the batter between the two pans. Add sliced apples or pears if desired. Bake for about 30 minutes, until puffed and golden. Remove from oven, sprinkle with sugar, and cut into wedges. Serve with additional fruit and yogurt, if desired. Makes 8 large wedges.