From our half-bushel, Lisa picked out about ten apples to keep as snacks for the week, and I brought the rest back with me to Manhattan. There's more than enough here for three or four pies. The lard remains in Lisa's fridge, however, which means it's back to market in search of congealed fats for my pie dough.

I read a fair amount about food, and if there's one thing I've learned about pie dough, it's that everybody thinks they have the secret to the perfect crust. I've read Gourmet, Saveur, Steingarten, Friberg, Julia, Jacques, and Betty Crocker. You can make it in a food processor - no, you should use a pair of forks - no, you need a pastry cutter - no, it's heresy to use anything but your hands. It should have the consistency of sand - no, it should look like cornmeal - no, it should have pea-sized lumps - no, the lumps should range in size from peppercorns to large olives. Add vinegar - no, lemon juice - no, eggs. Use shortening - no, butter - no, lard - no, all three. Add sugar - are you mad? no sugar! At least they all agree that ice water is a must.

I've settled on lard for several reasons. First, I believe it when I read that butter, which has a lot of water in it, can't be the only fat in a pie dough because it throws off the moisture balance. Besides, butter costs about three times as much as lard or shortening. I'll add some butter for flavor, but I also need either shortening or lard. Second, shortening doesn't taste like anything. It's hydrogenated vegetable fat - chemically altered to remain solid at room temperature. It coats your mouth with that greasy, cottony feeling but doesn't add any flavor. I've never used lard before, but lard comes from pigs, and pigs are yummy. Advantage: Lard. Finally, when the entire medical community tells you eating a certain food is very bad for you, but respectable chefs and foodies do it anyway, there's got to be a damn good reason. I'll take my chances.

Now, where in Manhattan can one acquire lard? Rendered pig fat is out of vogue these days, the Atkins Diet notwithstanding. I live right around the corner from Fairway and Citarella, which is usually great, but they don't carry anything so gauche as lard (I asked). I've stumbled on the rare instance where the Stop-and-Shop on Route 9 was better stocked than my beloved Upper West Side gourmet grocers. So I try the Upper West Side's grocery-shopping equivalent of slumming. Gristede's just opened up a new suburban-style megamarket under the Ansonia, on Broadway between 73rd and 74th. Their produce feels plastic, their meat is pallid, and their fish looks a little past its prime, but on sheer selection they beat the highbrow outfits hands down. I check in with them before I commit myself to a borough-wide quest for pork fat. Sure enough, crammed into the bottom right hand corner of the meat case, there's about a dozen green and white one-pound boxes of good old Armour brand lard. I'm probably the first person to buy one from them (I make sure to check the expiration date).

Armour's lard is labelled in both English and Spanish (in Spanish it's called "manteca"), which leads me to believe that it could probably also be found in bodegas with a respectable grocery section. Now that I know I can get it around the corner, though, I may just start using it for all my cooking needs. Pork-fried doughnuts, anyone?