The good, the bad, and the perplexing

Three recipes in this Wesson ad from August 1950, and three verdicts.

Stir-n-roll pie crust: Good. I've struggles a lot with pie crust over the years. Crisco produces a somewhat flaky but flavorless and often tough crust. Butter and shortening combos (I got one from Julia Child's baking book) are better, but messy and produce so much crust they can overwhelm the pie. Right now I'm enamored of an all-butter recipe that calls for high-fat, European butter. I've also had some luck with tart shell recipes requiring an egg or egg yolk and no rolling (but I don't currently own a food processor, so I haven't made those lately.

But for me the failsafe is always oiled pastry. It is easy to make, you don't need special equipment, and it never turns out horribly. You roll it between sheets of waxed paper so you don't get flour everywhere. It isn't flaky, but it is always tender. However, I've tried using milk, as this ad directs, and not liked the results so much. Oil and water are better.

The filling here, on the other hand . . . no. Frozen or canned fruit, melted marshmallows, whipping cream . . . I just don't think so. Not even in August.

The salad mystifies me. What makes it a "Man" catcher? The capers? Are capers a guy thing?