The perfect pie starts with a great pie crust. So what's the best type of fat for your pie crust recipe: butter, shortening or lard? We put all three to the test.
Butter, Shortening or Lard? We Found Out Which Makes the Best Pie Crust
Updated on May 15, 2025
While it’s almost impossible to get a group of people to agree on the best kind of pie—there are so many candidates, after all, from apple and pumpkin to French silk and even chicken—we think everyone can agree that every pie needs a good, flaky crust that provides an extra layer of flavor.
When it comes to the perfect crust, though, there still seems to be much debate. Some people think butter is the key fat for pie crust, while others swear by shortening or lard. To put this debate to rest, we asked the Taste of Home Test Kitchen team to taste test each kind of fat in the same pie crust recipe. This way, we could accurately compare how each fat impacted the color, flavor, flakiness and sturdiness in the resulting baked crust.
Our Pie Crust Taste Test: Testing Butter vs. Shortening vs. Lard
After testing the same recipe three times—swapping out the fat each time—we identified the pros and cons of shortening, lard and butter.
The #3 Pie Crust Fat: Shortening
Average score:Â 2.5/10
Of our three options, shortening got the lowest marks. Looking at the array of mini crusts, we could see that shortening pie crust baked up the darkest and didn’t have much rise, which means that the flaky layers you expect in pie crust won’t be as noticeable. In and of itself, this didn’t give us too much cause for alarm.
But when we broke the pie crusts into pieces, they just fell apart. This made us wonder if a shortening crust could hold up to the weight of heartier fillings. The thought of slicing into our favorite classic American pies and having them fall apart in the pan definitely had us a little stressed.
Unfortunately, the flavor didn’t make up for the crumbly texture, either. It was relatively flavorless, giving us a flat, gritty, bland crust. We also found it to be pretty greasy both in taste and texture (we were definitely cleaning a film off our hands after this test).
There are a few benefits of using shortening to make pie crust, though. Vegetable shortening is naturally vegan, so this type of fat is great for when you’re hosting guests with dietary restrictions. (Gluten-free pie crust is good for these occasions, too.) Shortening is also shelf-stable and easy to store in the pantry. Since it lasts a year after opening, you don’t have to worry much about the expiration date. Use any remaining shortening to make tender desserts like pumpkin whoopie pies.
The #2 Pie Crust Fat: Lard
Average score:Â 3/10
Ranking not much higher than shortening was our lard crust. In many ways, this crust was quite similar to the shortening version. Both lard and shortening are 100 percent fat, so it makes sense that they’d behave similarly. (In comparison, butter is roughly 85 percent fat and 15 percent water.)
Similar to the shortening crust, the lard also produced a flat, crumbly pastry with noticeable greasiness. This one fared slightly better in the test because the lard provided more flavor than the shortening, with just a hint more richness. Still, we were unimpressed by the old-fashioned ingredient’s performance. Plus, if you don’t regularly cook or bake with lard, you may not know what to do with the rest of it after making your pie crust.
The #1 Pie Crust Fat: Butter
Average score:Â 9/10
Knocking it out of the park with a near-perfect score was our butter crust. Judging by appearance alone, this one was a definite standout. The mini crusts had a lot of rise, were a light golden color and, when broken in half, revealed lots of gorgeous, flaky layers.
We were all impressed during the taste test. This crust gave us the rich, buttery flavor we had been seeking. We agreed that we could definitely eat these little discs plain.
After munching through our fair share of buttery wafers, we also made note of how much body this crust had. It was airy and light, but never crumbled to pieces the way the shortening and lard crusts had. We’re certain this sturdy crust would keep all our favorite fillings in place.
A butter pie crust dough can be a little more difficult to make because the cold butter requires a little extra effort to work into the flour—but we think it’s worth the extra elbow grease! Pie crust is one of those recipes where a high-quality butter brand is worth the extra money. Pick up unsalted butter instead of salted butter so you can control the amount of salt in the pastry. You could even take it to the next level by making butter from scratch.
The Best Pie Crust
Many of the taste tests we do here at Taste of Home end in close races between a few contenders. This time, though, there was one very clear victor. Butter made the tastiest, flakiest and sturdiest crust by far.
While we definitely prefer to use butter in our pie crust recipes, feel free to conduct your own taste test by following our guide on how to make pie crust, simply swapping in the fat of your choice. If you want to go beyond butter, lard and shortening, you can even make an oil pie crust. Or, if you don’t have time to make homemade pie crust at all, there’s no shame in picking up one of the best store-bought pie crust brands.
