Pastry:
2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 c vegetable shortening
ICE-COLD water (anywhere from ¼ c to ¾ c)

Filling:
1 796 ml (28 fl oz) bottle of pitted sour red cherries
1 heaping Tbsp corn starch
½ c sugar

1. Pastry: N.B. It's important to handle this pastry as little as possible. Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Cut the shortening into the flour and salt until it is pea sized. Add ICE-COLD water a little at a time and mix lightly with your hands until it is pastry consistency. Please note that the amount of water changes drastically, depending on the humidity. (For whatever pastry recipe you use, if it is very humid, reduce the amount of water called for.)
   
   
2. Handling it as little as possible, roll out the crust on a lightly floured board. Put crust in the bottom of a pie plate; trim. Roll out top crust and loosely roll around rolling pin; rest on top of pie plate. Refrigerate til filling is made. It's the refrigeration before baking that does the trick. It makes the pastry flakier.
   
   
3. Filling: Empty the jar of cherries into a sieve catching the juice below in a bowl. Check each cherry to make sure there are no pits in the cherries. (There's nothing more upsetting than having to make a trip to the dentist because of a broken tooth.) Bring to a boil all the juice, sugar and cornstarch. Cool. Add the pitted cherries to the juice. Put the cherries into the pie shell.
4. Using some of the juice of the cherries, rub all around the outer edge of the bottom crust. Put top crust on; trim. Using your index fingers and thumbs, press the two edges together to make a fluted edge. Slash through the top crust two or three times.
5. Bake at 450F until you've got the colour you like then turn down heat to 350F. Cooking time should be around 40 minutes total. It's done when the juice is bubbling.

Serve with vanilla icecream, crème fraiche or high fat yoghurt.