@Addison, I'm still looking for it. In Canada, it's made by something now called ingredion.ca, but they referred me to http://www.quadraingredients.com as being who distributes for them, but quadra says they don't sell directly to consumers, they are a bulk seller in flats only or something like that. Which I called them assuming they would be, their being a distributor and all, my purpose was to ask, "who do you sell to that sells to consumers so I can go and buy it from them". But I don't know what was less, the ability of the girl on the other end of the phone to speak either official Canadian language, or, her interest in exerting herself one iota and helping someone, she was so disinterested, and I didn't need to speak whatever language she could actually speak to get that part! So I'm at an impasse currently, but only currently, I am pretty tenacious. This post was edited by RandalOulton on Thu, Dec 11, 14 at 10:58

Sweet cherries are lightly less acidic than sour cherries, but not enough to impact safety issues (sour cherries are 3.2 - 3.8 usually; sweet cherries might be as high as 4.2 depending on the variety). Still well below 4.6 needed for BWB canning. Honey is also more acidic than sugar (3.9 as opposed to sugar's 6.00). The original recipe called for 7 cups of sugar, so they did reduce the proportion of honey (it's usually 3/4 to 7/8 cup of honey instead of 1 cup of sugar), but 6 cups sounds like way too much, as Dave said. You might not need that much Clear Jel either - it's a powerful thickener and most of us that have used it reduced the amount considerably. What you might consider is canning the cherries in a light syrup and thickening it for filling when you are ready to make the pie. Plain cherries would be much more versatile (my opinion). A light syrup would be 2-1/4 cups of sugar in 9 cups of water (for 7 quarts). I'd start with 1 cup of honey, add the cherries, and taste before you finish canning them. You can always add more honey to taste. Honey will make the syrup darker (but with cherries that shouldn't matter). I've done peaches in all-honey light syrup and they were delicious. The sweetener (sugar, honey, corn syrup, etc.) is really only for flavor and also helps retain color. You can can fruit in plain water, so there are no safety issues reducing the sweetener. Note: Substituting honey for sugar in jam and jelly recipes is more difficult, but for canning fruits in syrup, it works fine.

I'm a fan of Ultra Gel or Clear Jel for thickening pie. Flour makes a cloudier filling than cornstarch, and I would choose tapioca flour over tapioca, and cornstarch over flour. Flour is my least favorite. Because apples are approximately 86% water, as the fruit cooks the moisture becomes steam and liquid in the bottom of the pie, and the fruit shrinks leaving the gap between the fruit and crust, so consider some of these possible fixes. These methods should also help prevent "boil-over" and watery fillings. -Choose apples that can hold their shape to begin with. Avoid using Golden and Red Delicious and Macintosh apples for pies because these apples tend to turn to mush. -There are theories about the size of the slice. If you use a 1/4-inch slice, layer the slices in the bottom (tart-style), and build it up towards the center, rather than dumping the apple slices in a heap. This will prevent gaps and voids between the apples. -In a bowl, mix the apple slices (whatever size of slices you use) with the sugar and spices. Place the sugar/spice coated apple slices in a colander over a bowl for anywhere between 1-1/2 to 3-hours (3 hours is best if you can spare the time - but there's NOTHING quick about making a pie, and the slices can sit while you make the pastry and during the 2-hours the pastry needs to chill before rolling out). This will partially sweeten the fruit, the sugar helps preserve the shape of the fruit, and it draws out the moisture. After the resting time, pour the accumulated liquid in the bowl over the apple slices once the slices are placed in the pie. Another option with the liquid, cook it and reduce the liquid, and this will intensify the flavors. Let it cool before adding to the pie. -Be generous with the size and number of vent holes in the top crust to allow the steam to escape. -Grainlady

Mamapinky, it doesn't taste "porky", but it does have some kind of chemical they add to make it whiter and some preservative or another, BHA and BHT. The brand most often available here is Armour and it has a list of chemicals, as does Tenderflake. If you can find a refrigerated brand that might be better. If not, try a local Hispanic grocery, they use a lot of lard and it tends to at least be fresh. There are brands available like Proper Foods that are just pure lard. There are also many brands on Amazon, but you'll pay dearly for them. If I didn't have pure lard, I'd probably take a page from AnnT's book and just use butter. It's actually easy to render lard, but the real reason I do it is because if I put all that time and work into a pig, I'm using it ALL. I think it's disrespectful to the animal to be wasteful of it. I do often use this recipe from CanaryBird, who used to post here before her death. It's easy to handle, more malleable than my Grandmother's old pastry recipe! It does call for lard, but I've used butter instead. Like Rusty mentioned, Crisco is worse than it used to be, so I try to avoid it but if you have a good all vegetable shortening you like, it could be used here, I'm sure. I do know that Madonna/bcskye used this recipe in her food processor. It does make a lot, so there's enough crust there for an entire half sheet "slab" pie, that's a plus, but if you don't use it all you can freeze a couple of discs for later use, it freezes well. I find it easy enough to work with that I don't even refrigerate it before I roll it out, that's a plus for me. NATHAN'S NEVER FAIL PASTRY ********************************** These quantities make enough pastry for 3 double-crust pies or 3 1/2 dozen tart shells - muffin size. 5 cups flour 1 teasp salt 2 teasp baking powder 1 lb (454 grams) Tenderflake lard 2 teasp white vinegar 1 egg - slightly beaten. Add water to vinegar and egg to make 1 cup 1) Mix together flour, salt and baking powder. Cut in lard until crumbly (using two knives.) 2) Add liquid and mix gently with hands. (I use a fork to help me here.) Roll into a ball. 3) Roll out amount needed on a floured board. Refrigerate or freeze remainder. Source: 'I've GOT To Have That Recipe' Doubleday Canada - Victoria, B.C. 1986 sharoncb's tip: After step two I often put it in the fridge for an hour to make it firmer and easier to roll out. Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving. Pie is always good, especially if you're like me and the filling is the best part! Annie