Start with pastry of course.
Now
You can feel free to purchase an already prepared crust but if you do, please make sure it is made with TENDERFLAKE Lard. From the freezer section.
If you are making your own pastry:
1/2 LB. Lard cut into pieces
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
Mix above ingredients together with either a pastry cutter or as I do, with your hands.
Until mixture resembles course crumbs. Do not squish or squeeze as this will make it tough. Be gentle but thorough
In a 1 cup measuring cup break one whole egg, beat lightly with a fork
add 1 TBLSP. white vinegar
and fill measuring cup to the one cup mark
Mix with a fork
VERY IMPORTANT
Add HALF of this egg mixture to your flour and Lard mixture. The other half you will discard.
Mix well but again, do not over mix or treat it harshly:)
With your hands form pastry into a ball and put out onto counter. do not knead but do make sure it comes together nicely.
This is enough dough for two pies with top and bottom crust.
Divide into two or four balls. wrap in saran and flatten into a disk.
Place disks you are not using into another plastic bag and freeze for another time. The one you are using for this pie can either go into the fridge for a few minutes or you may roll it right away. It will be a bit easier to work with if you put it in the fridge for half an hour. Otherwise it will be very soft and will have a tendency to stick to the counter.
Put a small amount of flour on counter and flatten one disk. Flip disk so both sides have a thin layer of flour. With a rolling pin roll pastry into a round flat piece large enough to fit into your pie plate and come up over the edges . Make sure pastry is thin. It should be not much thicker than a sheet of paper.
Put into pie plate. Bring edges of pastry over the edge of the pie plate
Fill with whatever your choice is and roll out the dough to make your top crust.
Make sure the bottom and the top are big enough to fold over and pinch together so that the filling does not leak too much. It will ooze out a little.