My mother has always sworn by crisco and ready crust. I however like to make it from scratch and the first thing I discovered is that crisco makes a LOUSY crust, use lard. The second rule is the don't overwork the crust, once you are blended, roll and bake. Unlike bread, crusts do not like to be touched. Here is my recipe from Better Homes and Gardens "Pies and Cakes" 1969: Double crust 2 C Sifted all-porpose flour 1 t salt 2/3 C shortening (lard) 5 to 7 T cold water Sift together flour and salt: cut in shortening with pastry blender or blending fork till pieces are the size of small peas. (For extra tender pastry, cut in half the shortening till mixtrure looks like cornmenal. Then cut in remaining till like small peas.) Sprinkle next tablespoon waster over part of mixture. Gently toss with fork: push to side of bowl. Sprinkle next tablespoon water over dry part" mix lightly" push to moistened part at side. Repeat till all is moistened. Form into ball. (for double-crust and lattice top pies, divide for lower and upper crust. Form each portion into ball.) Flatten ball on lightly floured surface. Roll from center to edge till dough is 1/8 inch thick. My Aunt, a wonderful baker, taught me to use the side of my hand to mark the top of the ball of dought like you would a peanut butter cookie, three of four times each way. It seems to help keep the dough more even as it is rolled and keeps the edges from splitting so bad. Good luck Billie

My hunch, if it was central VA and a BBQ place, was that it wasn't a pate sucree or something similar. It was probably an "American" pie crust. You can make a great flaky crust in about four minutes with butter, flour, and a little ice cold water. Can add a pinch of salt if you want. Leave some pretty large chunks of butter and make sure you do the fraisage. Like always, let it sit for an hour or so or even a day before rolling it out. Most likely based on cost and region, they probably used shortening, but don't. It tastes bad and makes your crust have a bad mouthfeel. Just use butter. Bake it well, maybe weighing it down, and make sure you bake it very close to the time you are going to use it. In other words, don't bake it today for use tomorrow or the next day. It's never as crisp as it is the first day. Let it cool, fill and serve immediately. The water from the filling will start to soften it right away, so you don't want to let that sit if you want to maintain the crispiness. This post was edited by rosesinny on Mon, Feb 18, 13 at 17:57

I've used this recipe twice and second time I tweeted the recipe. Sausage apple pie 1 pound ground pork sausage **first time I used maple sausage **second time I used sage and liked it better 1 (15.25 ounce) apple pie filling ****My tweet was to add nutmeg to taste but if you prefer cinnamon 1 (9 inch)unbaked pie crust 1 (8 ounce) packageshredded Cheddar cheese 1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 2.Place sausage in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain and combine with apple pie filling. Transfer to pie crust and top with cheese. 3.Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until pie crust is golden brown. It didn't hold together well in the pie shell, and second time I eliminated the pasty and served it as a casserole. I liked it much better.

My only tip is to make sure to use cold, cubed butter. If you use room temperature or melted butter, the crumbs tend to flatten out more.