The Butter Substitute That Will Add A Delicious And Savory Twist To Pie Crust

Pie crust is the buttery background for pie filling, but it can also be given a flavor boost with a craveable ingredient we associate with savory foods: bacon. Audra Fullerton, head recipe developer and baking expert at The Baker Chick, spoke to Food Republic about using bacon grease as a butter substitute for pie crust, and told us, "Bacon grease can give the crust a savory and salty element that is really interesting and unique."

Butter must be cold for a flaky crust, and Fullerton said that also applies to bacon grease, which should be handled the same way. She advised, "Definitely chill the bacon grease until it's the texture of butter and [then] cut it into cubes, working it into the pie dough until small pea-sized clumps have formed." If the fat isn't super-cold, it melts instead of leaving small pieces in the dough that give off steam in the oven, producing air pockets that create flakiness. Strain the bacon grease with a paper coffee filter or cheesecloth before chilling to remove tiny meat or burned bits.

Make the dough like a butter crust, pulsing the bacon grease cubes with flour, salt (and sugar if your recipe has it) in a food processor to get those small pea-sized pieces. Add ice water slowly until the dough comes together. You can make a crust when you have leftover bacon grease and properly store it in the freezer for future use.

Using rendered pork fat for pie crust isn't anything new. Lard has long been used this way, and other kinds of baking employ leftover bacon grease, like in making Southern-style biscuits. But while lard may, at most, have a light pork taste, bacon grease has the smoky, salty, and slightly sweet flavors of bacon. You could use half butter and half bacon grease for the crust to temper that, so you get some delicious bacony flavor without it being too dominant, particularly depending on your pie filling.

Audra Fullerton shared some of her favorite fillings for this amped-up crust: "I love the salty [and] savory element of bacon grease in apple pie, French silk pie, and my salted maple chess pie!" Fruit pies go well with bacon grease crust, a sweet-and-savory pairing you also see when apple pie has a cheddar cheese lattice.

This crust also balances a really sweet pie, like a bourbon pecan, a chocolaty one like chocolate cream, or one with many spices, like a classic pumpkin pie or a maple-bourbon sweet potato pie. Incorporate a layer of peanut butter in a banana cream pie with a bacon grease crust, and you have a riff on Elvis Presley's famous peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwiches!

Savory pies like pot pies and quiches are similarly ideal — a natural match for an Italian meat pie or even a chunky pork and fennel pie. However, milder pie fillings or ones with a central prominent flavor could get overwhelmed by the crust or clash with it, like vanilla cream pie, lemon meringue, coconut cream, or key lime.