Plain Pastry
Work one-quarter of a cupful of lard in one and onehalf cupfuls of flour with tips of the fingers. Add one-half teaspoonful salt; moisten to a dough with cold water. Toss onto a floured board, pat and roll out. Fold in one-quarter cupful washed butter; pat and roll out four times. Shape and bake in a moderate oven.
A short, half-laminated crust: a rubbed-in lard base given four turns with butter folded through it. The hinge is temperature — the butter must stay in visible sheets, so work fast and chill the dough the moment it softens.
- Washed butterButter of this period was salted and often still held buttermilk, and period recipes routinely direct the cook to wash it, chiefly to draw out the salt. Washing meant kneading it under cold water until the water ran clear. Modern unsalted butter needs none of this; use it straight from the refrigerator.
- Water quantityThe original gives none. Expect 3 to 4 tablespoons of ice water for 1½ cups flour — add it a tablespoon at a time until the dough just coheres when pressed.
- Moderate ovenRead this as roughly 350 to 375°F. If blind-baking, a hotter start will help set the layers before the fat runs, though the book gives no such direction.
- Fingertips, not palms"Tips of the fingers" is deliberate — palms are warm enough to melt lard into the flour and produce a mealy, crumbly crust rather than a flaky one. A pastry blender or two knives does the same job.
- Rolling and folding"Pat and roll out four times" is best taken as four turns; the recipe does not say how to fold, so any simple fold and roll will serve. If the butter starts to smear or the dough resists, refrigerate 20 minutes between turns.
- LardLeaf lard or a good rendered lard gives the tenderness intended here. Supermarket hydrogenated lard is a poorer substitute; unsalted shortening or additional cold butter will work, though the crust is less short.
- YieldAbout 12 ounces of dough — one 9-inch single crust with enough left for a lattice, or a thin double crust for an 8-inch pie. Rest it in the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before shaping.
"Plain pastry" in turn-of-the-century American cookbooks meant an everyday crust, as distinguished from puff paste, which took many more turns and used butter alone. This version sits between the two: the rubbed-in lard does the tenderizing, and the four folds of butter give a hint of leaf structure without the labor of a true feuilletage. The lard-and-butter combination was practical arithmetic as much as taste — lard was cheap and reliably firm, while butter was expensive and variable in quality. Recipes of the period often tell the cook to wash the butter first, a step that addressed residual salt and buttermilk rather than cost.