My experience with pie is limited. Other than the fact that I’ve made a fair number, I really only have used the crust recipe on the box of Tenderflake. And although I’m a huge fan of anything that boldly displays ‘pure lard’ – this will be my last time with Tenderflake. Why? Well I plan on making topless pies, to reduce the fat and up the fruit per slice – which means one box of Tenderflake makes 6 pies. That’s a lot of pies. What if I just want to make one? The answer, as to many questions in life: butter. I always have butter on hand. One can make crust of butter. Future pie crusts will be made of butter.
I realized during this project that my love for pears really lies in Bartlett pears. There are many other fine kinds, but when I smell these, it brings me back to cleaning cases of them for my mom’s preserves and pies when I was a kid. And when a food brings back fond childhood memories, it’s gonna be tough to beat.
Recipe? Make the dough listed on the back of the Tenderflake box. Add fruit. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake. I used cake flour as recommended, and actually cut the lard in with knives. I usually use my food processor, but my guess is this would overwork it. I was right. The knife gig makes for some very fine crust. My mom’s pear pie is better, but this is a fine second.
As with most days, my kitchen endeavors are not limited to one item. Earlier in the day, I purchased a 10lb shank piece of pig leg for just under $10. Awesome. I removed the skin, deboned it, separated the muscles from each other, trimmed it, and cut into rough 2-3″ dice. While mucking about, I noticed there is a huge difference in the leg muscles’ fat content in pork. The center shot shows my hand touching some very lean reddish meat. And to the right, some seriously marbled pieces that remind me of some photos of Kobe I’ve seen recently. The vintage 70’s Creuset has the bone and the b-grade cuts [read: lean] ready for Texas style bbq. The Emile Henry pot in the foreground containing the lovely fatty pieces turned into a Vietnamese kho. Oven at 250F for a few hours, and it makes me wonder why I don’t just forget everything else and just live off slow cooked pork. Really.