Pie Crust Lab179 recipes
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What goes into pie crust

The main ingredient list of all 179 recipes, with names merged so one choice counts once: unsalted and salted butter are butter, light and dark brown sugar are brown sugar, kosher and table salt are salt. Different flours stay apart. Frosting, glaze and other extras are counted on their own at the end.

In short

  • Most pie crust recipes use butter (89%); 20% use shortening, and 16% use both.
  • For sugar, 51% use white sugar alone and 48% no sugar at all.
  • For the liquid, 89% use water alone and 5% milk alone.

The main choices

Each block sorts every recipe into one group by a single decision. Amounts are the median among recipes in that group, scaled to 160 g of flour, the size of a typical crust. The recipe named under each group is the one in it closest to the typical crust on every ingredient.

Butter, oil or both

Each recipe counted once, by the fats in its main ingredient list.

Margarine and vegan butter count as butter (1 recipe). Oil includes coconut oil (1%).

White, brown or a syrup

Each recipe counted once, by the sweeteners in its main ingredient list.

White sugar includes powdered sugar, in 2% of recipes.

Water, milk or something richer

Each recipe counted once, by the liquids in its main ingredient list.

  • Water only

    median 48 g liquid · closest to typical: Pâte Brisée Recipe (biggerbolderbaking.com)

    89%160 recipes

  • Milk only

    median 42 g liquid · closest to typical: Pâte brisée allégée (cuisineaz.com)

    5%10 recipes

  • Everything else

    5%9 recipes

How often each ingredient appears

Share of the 179 recipes that list it at least once, for every ingredient in 5% or more of them. The median amount is among recipes that use it and give a weighable amount, scaled to 160 g of flour; for a flour, it is that flour's share of all the flour in the recipe.

  1. Salt100%

    179 recipes · median 2.3 g

  2. All-purpose flour97%

    174 recipes · median: all of the flour

  3. Water89%

    161 recipes · median 47 g

  4. Butter89%

    160 recipes · median 87 g

  5. Granulated sugar49%

    89 recipes · median 7 g

  6. Shortening20%

    37 recipes · median 52 g

  7. Eggs10%

    19 recipes · median 32 g

  8. Vinegar9%

    17 recipes · median 4.7 g

  9. Baking powder7%

    14 recipes · median 2.1 g

  10. Egg yolks6%

    12 recipes · median 12 g

  11. Milk5%

    10 recipes · median 42 g

  12. Vegetable oil5%

    9 recipes · median 59 g

Toppings and extras

Only 8 of 179 recipes list a frosting, glaze, filling or topping, so there is little to count here.

How the ingredients are counted

A recipe uses an ingredient when any line of its main ingredient list names it. Names are merged by the words in them, so “1 cup unsalted butter, softened” and “salted butter” are both butter, and a line that offers a choice (“walnuts or pecans”) counts as the first one named. Canola, vegetable and other neutral oils are one oil; coconut and olive oil are listed on their own.

Lines only for greasing the pan are left out. Lines for brushing, sprinkling or serving, and lines that belong to a frosting, glaze, filling or topping, count as extras.

Amounts come from the grams on each recipe page: printed by the source, or converted from cups and spoons with standard densities. Scaling them to 160 g of flour lets a small recipe and a double batch line up. Percentages are rounded down.