Method
- 1
Mix the salt into the flour. Set aside 1¼ tablespoons of the lard and work the rest into the flour with the fingertips or a knife.
- 2
Moisten with water to a dough, pat it on a floured board and roll it out. Spread it with 1 tablespoon of the reserved lard, dredge with flour, roll it up like a jelly roll, then pat, roll and roll it up again.
- 3
Cut a piece from the end of the roll large enough for the bottom crust and roll it into a round. Line the pie plate. Use the remainder for the top.
- 4
Pare and core the apples and cut them in eighths. Lay a ring of slices around the plate half an inch from the edge, work toward the center until the plate is covered, then pile on the rest.
- 5
Mix the sugar, nutmeg, salt, lemon juice and grated rind and sprinkle the mixture over the apples. Dot with the butter.
- 6
Wet the edge of the bottom crust, lay on the top crust and press the edges together. Pierce the top so steam can escape.
- 7
Dot the top crust with the last ¼ tablespoon of reserved lard for a flaky look, or brush it with milk for a glaze.
- 8
Bake 40 to 45 minutes in a moderate oven.
- Farmer adds that a very good pie can be made without the butter, lemon juice and rind, that cinnamon may replace the nutmeg, and that evaporated apples, soaked overnight, may replace fresh.
- The book’s general pie instructions call for pastry a quarter inch thick, a larger piece for the top than the bottom, and an upper crust always perforated.
- The source gives no oven temperature; it says only “a moderate oven.”