My grandma's pie crust trick that everyone seems to skip

I keep seeing people online say you gotta use ice cold butter for pie crust, but they never say you have to grate it first. My grandma taught me to freeze the butter stick, then grate it on a box grater into the flour. I tried it on 4 pies last Thanksgiving in Chicago and the flaky layers were way better than just cutting cubes. Anyone else do this or am I the crazy one here?

3 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

3 Comments

craig.mila4mo ago

Grinding your own spices is the same idea, way better results for almost no extra work.

4

lindal134mo ago

Never tried whole spices myself, does that extra work really make that much difference for everyday cooking?

3

jenny_hall4mo ago

Grinding fresh also means you can toast whole spices first in a dry pan for a minute. That alone wakes up flavors you just can't get from the pre-ground stuff. For something like cumin or coriander, toasting then grinding takes maybe 2 minutes total and changes the whole dish.

3