Pie Crust Lab
Pie Crust: what 179 recipes agree on
Flaky pastry: fat, water, salt and sugar per 100 g of flour.
179 recipes from 89 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical crust, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.
Recipes
179
from 89 sites
Typical flour
160 g
about 1 1/4 cups
Oven
390°F
200°C · median of 46
Bake time
20 min
most 15 to 39 min
The typical crust of pie crust
The median of all 179 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 160 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| FlourThe scale for everything else | 160 gabout 1 1/4 cups |
| FatMost recipes use 80 to 115 g | 105 gabout 1/2 cup |
| WaterMost recipes use 38 to 60 g | 47 gabout 3 tbsp |
| SaltMost recipes use 1.5 to 3 g | 2 g |
| Sugar48% use none; the rest mostly 5 to 12 g | 2 gabout 1/2 tsp |
Bake390°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes.
Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, milk and other liquids 240 g.
Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient
Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.
Fat
median 65% · most 50 to 73%
Cold butter, shortening or lard flattened into sheets that steam apart in the oven: the flakes. Butter tastes best, shortening is easier to handle.
Each dot is up to 6 recipes. range 36 to 109%
Water
median 30% · most 24 to 38%
Just enough ice water to hold the dough together; more is easier to roll but tougher to eat.
Each dot is up to 2 recipes. range 8.2 to 54%
Salt
median 1.4% · most 1 to 1.9%
Salt gives an otherwise bland crust its flavor.
Each dot is up to 3 recipes. range 0.2 to 3%
Sugar
median 1.3% · 48% use none
A little sugar for sweet pies; many recipes use none.
Each dot is up to 10 recipes. range 0 to 17% · those that use some, mostly 3.4 to 7.8%
Where recipes disagree
Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.
- Sugar. 48% of recipes use no sugar, and the rest disagree too: the middle half of them add 3.4 to 7.8% of the flour weight.
- Salt. The middle half of recipes use 1 to 1.9% of the flour weight in salt, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 1.9 times as much as one at the 25th.
Recipes agree most on fat and water: fat 50 to 73%, water 24 to 38% for the middle half.
Around the world
162 of the recipes come in 2 languages with enough of each to compare: English 125, French 37.
- French recipes use 27% less fat than English ones (50% against 69% of the flour weight); most use no sugar (67%, against 37% of English recipes).
What the words in titles mean
English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.
Recipes called “flaky” (14) or “perfect” (14) use about the same amounts as the rest on every ingredient measured here.
The most-reviewed recipes
33 pie crust recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 146, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:
On no ingredient do the most-reviewed recipes differ from the rest by more than chance would explain.
50+ ratings (33)the rest (146)middle half of all
Fatthe most-reviewed recipes 63% vs the rest 65%
Waterthe most-reviewed recipes 32% vs the rest 30%
Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 1.6% vs the rest 1.4%
Sugarthe most-reviewed recipes 0% vs the rest 1.3%
Most reviewed
- Pie Crust · tastesbetterfromscratch.com5.0 from 1,532 ratings
- Pâte brisée au thermomix · cookomix.com · French5.0 from 1,434 ratings
- Pâte brisée vite faite : la meilleure recette · marmiton.org · French4.7 from 983 ratings
- Easy Pie Crust Recipe · natashaskitchen.com4.9 from 979 ratings
- No Fuss Pie Crust · 12tomatoes.com4.3 from 486 ratings
Oven temperature and time
46 of 179 recipes state an oven temperature, and 28% of those bake at 350°F (175°C). The middle half bake at 350 to 420°F. The other 133 do not say.
- 350°F13 recipes
- 400°F11 recipes
- 425°F10 recipes
- 375°F9 recipes
- 475°F2 recipes
- 300°F1 recipe
75 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 20 minutes and the middle half bake 15 to 39 minutes.
Temperature and time together
The single most common pairing is 400°F for 10 to 15 minutes, with 6 of the 44 recipes that state both.
Recipes to start with
Closest to the typical crust
Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.
- Pâte Brisée Recipe · biggerbolderbaking.comfat 65% · water 29%
- Cornmeal Pie Crust · baking-sense.comfat 52% · water 30%
- Perfect Pie Crust Recipe · baking-sense.comfat 52% · water 30%
- Whole Wheat Pie Crust · baking-sense.comfat 52% · water 30%
- Pie Crust Recipe · thereciperebel.comfat 69% · water 32%
Most fat
- Pareve Pie Crust · jamiegeller.comfat 109% · water 28%
- Easy Pie Crust · jessicagavin.comfat 106% · water 47%
- Lard and Butter Pie Crust · leitesculinaria.comfat 92% · water 24%
Least fat
- Massa de torta salgada · receiteria.com.brfat 36% · water 42%
- Pâte brisée express et légère : la meilleure recette · marmiton.orgfat 37% · water 40%
- Pâte à tarte recette tupperware · ptitchef.comfat 37% · water 40%
Go deeper
- DiscoverEvery recipe plotted on any two ratios.
- CalculatorStart from the typical recipe, move the ratios, get grams.
- IngredientsWhich ingredients recipes use, and the choices they make.
- RatiosWhich ingredients rise and fall together.
- TimelineRecipes by publication year and how the typical one shifted.
- Around the WorldThe typical recipe in each language, and where French, German or Italian recipes part from English ones.
- All RecipesEvery recipe, sortable, with a page each.
- ClustersThe styles the numbers fall into.
- Decision TreeA few questions that narrow the recipes to the ones you want.
Top sources
- 8chefsimon.com
- 8marmiton.org
- 712tomatoes.com
- 7leitesculinaria.com
- 7ptitchef.com
- 6cuisineaz.com
- 6tasteofhome.com
- 5cuisine.journaldesfemmes.fr
- 4baking-sense.com
- 4biggerbolderbaking.com
- 4foodnetwork.com
- 4thepioneerwoman.com
In 7 languages: English 125, French 37, Italian 7, Spanish 3, Portuguese 3, German 2, Dutch 2. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 89 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.
How the numbers are made
Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.
99% of the 998 ingredient lines got a weight. 30% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.
A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 244 were left out: 140 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (water 64, fat 44, salt 27, sugar 5), 54 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 26 with a title that names a different dish, 12 duplicates of other pages, 8 too many lines without an amount, 3 with an ingredient in amounts that could not be weighed, and 1 a listing page, not a recipe page.
Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.