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My grandma's pie crust used lard, now I use butter - night and day difference

I grew up watching my grandma make pie crust with straight lard from the butcher shop in our little town. She'd cut it in by hand and the crust was always so flaky it would shatter when you bit into it. Last Thanksgiving I finally tried her recipe but subbed in cold butter cubes instead, just to see what would happen. The flavor was way better but the texture came out more like a shortbread than that super flaky lard crust. Has anyone else experimented with swapping fats in old family recipes and gotten mixed results?
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3 Comments
jake986
jake9861mo ago
Burnt my hand trying to swap lard for butter and cried over it lol.
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the_william
Oh man I feel this one hard. I tried the same swap with my great aunt's biscuit recipe that used bacon grease for years and the butter just did not hit the same. The texture was way off, denser and not as light, even though the butter taste was nice. It's wild how much the chemistry of different fats changes the whole structure of baked goods.
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lopez.quinn
Bacon grease swap fails hit different than regular cooking fails.
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