[1] Ever since Reid was small, she has looked forward to “helping” Aunt Karin make pie dough and the pies themselves. I think that Reid may actually be lessening the work now. Aunt Karin says that she is investing the time so that she won’t always be the one who must be “rolling out the dough” (like that guy in Perfect Strangers).

To be sure that the knowledge lives on, I’m offering Aunt Karin’s pie crust recipe and a how-to video.

 Pie crust

• 5.5 cups all purpose flour (use 5.5 toothpicks to keep track of the flour as you put them in the bowl)
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1 lb Tenderflake lard
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• cold water

1. Mix together flour, salt and sugar.
2. Cut in Tenderflake lard with pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse oatmeal.
3. In a 1 cup measure, combine vinegar and egg. Add water to make 1 cup. Gradually stir liquid into lard mixture. Add only enough water to make dough cling together.
4. Gather into a ball and divide into 6 portions. If desired, wrap unused portions and refrigerate or freeze.
5. Good tip: Aunt Karin freezes the dough in pie-size portions in sandwich bags.
6. Roll out each portion on lightly floured surface. If dough is sticking, chill 1 to 2 hours.
7. Transfer dough to pie plate. Trim and flute shells or crusts and bake according to filling directions.
8. For a perfect, golden crust, mix a bit of milk with coarse sugar and paint the crust carefully.

Here is a [2] video of Reid demonstrating the most important steps.