Pie Crust Lab

Four overlapping styles in 179 pie crust recipes

Leave the recipe names aside and group the 179 recipes by their 4 ingredient ratios alone, so that recipes built alike land together. Each group is named only by the numbers: the ingredients where its recipes sit furthest from the middle of all 179.

The data splits best into four groups, but they overlap: a silhouette of 0.24, on a scale where 0 is no separation and 1 is complete. Read them as tendencies within one broad spread rather than separate kinds of pie crust.

The recipes on one map

Every recipe, placed on the two directions along which the ratios vary most (a principal component projection). Close dots are recipes built alike. The lettered rings mark the middle of each group.

AMore fat79
BLess salt and fat44
CLess fat, more salt34
DWith sugar, less salt22

Across →: More sugar, less salt and water to the right; 30% of the variation.
Up ↑: More fat and water upward; 29% of the variation.

The four groups

AMore fat

79 recipes · 44% of all 179 · median oven 390°F (200°C), 22 min

Where it differs from all recipes

Fatmedian 73% vs 65% for all
average rank: 75th percentile of all recipes
Saltmedian 1.7% vs 1.4% for all
average rank: 60th percentile of all recipes

Its median recipe, at 160 g flour

Median recipe of group A in grams, against the median of all recipes
Ingredient	Group A	All
Fat	115 g	105 g
Water	55 g	47 g
Salt	2.5 g	2 g
Sugar	5 g	2 g

Each line is the group's median for that ingredient, scaled to 160 g of flour.

Closest to the middle of the group

Pie Crust Recipe · thereciperebel.comfat 69% · salt 1.8%
All-Butter Pie Crust From Scratch · joythebaker.comfat 73% · salt 1.4%
Basic Pie Dough · melindastrauss.comfat 73% · salt 1.9%
The Best Flaky Pie Crust · completelydelicious.comfat 73% · salt 1.9%
All Butter Pie Crust · sallysbakingaddiction.comfat 72% · salt 1.9%

BLess salt and fat

44 recipes · 25% of all 179

Where it differs from all recipes

Saltmedian 0.7% vs 1.4% for all
average rank: 19th percentile of all recipes
Fatmedian 50% vs 65% for all
average rank: 31st percentile of all recipes
Sugarmedian 0% vs 1.3% for all
average rank: 32nd percentile of all recipes · none in 79% (all recipes 48%)

Its median recipe, at 160 g flour

Median recipe of group B in grams, against the median of all recipes
Ingredient	Group B	All
Fat	80 g	105 g
Water	44 g	47 g
Salt	1 g	2 g
Sugar	none	2 g

Each line is the group's median for that ingredient, scaled to 160 g of flour.

Closest to the middle of the group

Pâte Brisée - französischer Mürbteig · gutekueche.atsalt 0.6% · fat 50%
Einkorn Pie Crust · farmhouseonboone.comsalt 1% · fat 55%
Pâte brisée allégée · cuisineaz.comsalt 1% · fat 50%
Coconut Oil Pie Crust · maureenabood.comsalt 0.9% · fat 50%
Pâte brisée express · cuisineaz.comsalt 0.3% · fat 50%

CLess fat, more salt

34 recipes · 19% of all 179

Where it differs from all recipes

Fatmedian 50% vs 65% for all
average rank: 22nd percentile of all recipes
Saltmedian 2% vs 1.4% for all
average rank: 79th percentile of all recipes
Sugarmedian 0% vs 1.3% for all
average rank: 35th percentile of all recipes · none in 70% (all recipes 48%)

Its median recipe, at 160 g flour

Median recipe of group C in grams, against the median of all recipes
Ingredient	Group C	All
Fat	80 g	105 g
Water	47 g	47 g
Salt	3 g	2 g
Sugar	none	2 g

Each line is the group's median for that ingredient, scaled to 160 g of flour.

Closest to the middle of the group

Perfect Pie Crust Recipe · savingdessert.comfat 55% · salt 1.9%
Oil Pie Crust, My Mom’s Best Recipe · maureenabood.comfat 50% · salt 1.8%
Pâte brisée Monsieur Cuisine · cuisine.journaldesfemmes.frfat 43% · salt 2%
Pâte brisée au thermomix · cookomix.comfat 42% · salt 2%
Masa quebrada con Thermomix · velocidadcuchara.comfat 47% · salt 2%

DWith sugar, less salt

22 recipes · 12% of all 179

Where it differs from all recipes

Sugarmedian 12% vs 1.3% for all
average rank: 91st percentile of all recipes · none in 0% (all recipes 48%)
Saltmedian 1% vs 1.4% for all
average rank: 33rd percentile of all recipes
Watermedian 23% vs 30% for all
average rank: 34th percentile of all recipes

Its median recipe, at 160 g flour

Median recipe of group D in grams, against the median of all recipes
Ingredient	Group D	All
Fat	90 g	105 g
Water	36 g	47 g
Salt	1.5 g	2 g
Sugar	20 g	2 g

Each line is the group's median for that ingredient, scaled to 160 g of flour.

Closest to the middle of the group

Pâte brisée au Companion : la meilleure recette · marmiton.orgsugar 13% · salt 1%
Pâte brisée au Cookeo : la meilleure recette · marmiton.orgsugar 13% · salt 1%
Pâte brisée sucrée nature ou aromatisée · chefsimon.comsugar 12% · salt 1.2%

How the groups are found

Each ratio is converted to a z-score (how many standard deviations a recipe sits from the mean), capped at 3 so one extreme recipe cannot claim a group, and k-means sorts the recipes into k groups, trying k from 2 to 4. Each k runs from 16 fixed starting points and keeps the tightest result, so the page is the same on every build. No group may hold fewer than 18 recipes.

The number of groups is the one with the best silhouette, which compares how close each recipe is to its own group with how close it is to the next one. By number of groups: 2 groups 0.21 · 3 groups 0.22 · 4 groups 0.24. At 0.25 or more the page calls the groups separate; from 0.18 to 0.25, overlapping; under 0.18, no clear styles.

A group's name lists the one to three ingredients where its recipes rank furthest from the middle of all 179, on average. “More” and “less” are relative to the whole dataset, and the names say nothing about texture or taste, which the ratios alone do not show. The median recipe of a group is, like the typical recipe on the overview, the middle of each ingredient separately, not one real recipe. The recipes listed under each group are the ones nearest its center, at most two from any one site.