While testing this recipe, I first used my favorite all-butter crust. It was delicious, but because the melting point of butter is low, the half-filled crust slumped, making for a shallow pie that couldn't cradle all the filling. Lard has a higher melting point than butter and, therefore, has the brio to hold up in the first minutes of baking. A store-bought crust is usually made with shortening, which has an even higher melting point than lard and will also work.