After my recent adventure rendering my own lard I decided that before I used my lovingly homemade lard I would try out a few recipes using an industrial stand-in.

When I asked Ross whether he wanted apple turnovers of steak and kidney pie, after much meditation he went with the turnovers.  Which is great because pork and apples are a great combo.  For my pastry recipe I used one from the Boston Globe that I found online. 

Pie crusts are a complex thing, they have few ingredients but can be very difficult to make.  Most pie crusts use butter, making them very temperamental and at least in my case often tough from over working.  Lard is supposedly much more forgiving.

After combing the salt and flour I cut the lard into the mixture using a pastry cutter (which is more often used by Ross to make mashed potatoes).  You want the lard to evenly coat the flour.

Next simply add the mixture of vinegar and ice water and combine using either a spatula or your hands.  Then pour onto a board and knead to bring the dough together.

At this point make your dough into a ball and put it in the fridge for at least an hour to rest.

Just because this dough is made out of lard (aka pork fat) doesn't mean that it's a strictly a savory crust.  In fact with my dough I'm going to make two different things, sweet and savory.

I'm thinking my lovely lard dough is going to end up as some tuna and raisin empanadas, and few apple turnovers.