This has been the best article I have ever read. Thank you! I read every one of the comments and found them fascinating. I believe that pie making is almost a lost art. As a little girl in Lombard, IL, I would watch my Grandmother make dozens of Apple Pies for the freezer in the fall. My Mother was a great pie maker as well. They both used shortening and not just any shortening, it had to be Crisco. I don't know the rationale, I just know that daughters learn from their Grandmothers and Mothers and so I do the same. I have been making pies for over 40 years with great success. I didn't see that anyone mentioned what you do with any left over pie dough.....Pie Cookies of course! Roll out the left over dough, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, roll up into a tube and slice into pin-wheels and bake. OMG...almost better than the pie. I rationalized to my husband that I had to "test" the pie dough by eating all the cookies to make sure the crust was right.....and he always fell for that! Ha, ha. ha...... God Bless the Pie Makers of the world!

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