Butter or Vegetable Shortening

Over the holidays, I had a chance to visit with my family in Indiana. It was good see everyone and to talk about, of all things, pie and pie crust. During our discussions, my brother made a comment about using vegetable shortening in pie crust that got me to thinking. It has always been my opinion that butter alters the texture more than the taste and that the debate of when or if to use butter should revolve around that point. I felt that it was not about whether the extra crunch of a butter crust is better than the crunch of a vegetable shortening crust, rather it was about matching the right kind of crunch to the filling. It also seemed to me that vegetable shortening pie crusts were easier to roll out, came together quicker, and in general always were a slam dunk when it came to creating consistently great crusts.

I must admit, however, that in the back of my mind I always felt that there was actually a bit of a taste difference between the two, the butter crust having a cleaner taste, with the vegetable shortening crust having a bit of an after taste. In discussing the merits of the two ingredients, my brother outlined this very thought. It should be noted that he is an all butter crust maker. It sent me back to the kitchen to validate this thinking. Here is my conclusion.

If in fact, you take a piece of crust off the edge of the pie, especially a dark brown baked piece, there is a bit of after taste to be detected. For me, the taste is not apparent if you eat the crust with the filling or eat a less browned piece of crust. So while my brother, to a degree, is correct in his thoughts, I don't believe that it will deter me from baking most of my pies using either all vegetable shortening or half butter, half vegetable shortening. My mother, who has never made a butter crust in her life, always says, "Nobody ever complained about my pies", and she made quite a few pies.

While visiting my mother, we both baked pies. My mother used a crust that she had made ahead and had stored in the freezer for several days. I made mine on the spot. Hands down, my mother's crust was the best. Her crust still remains the goal in the journey toward making the perfect pie crust.

Keep on baking.