Larding
When you see a piece of legislation, like the current version of the financial rescue package, full of seemingly unrelated handouts to this group and that, the common practice is to say “larded it up”. What many people in this day and age don’t realize, however, is that “larding” is a real cooking technique used for tough cuts and (especially) very lean pieces of meat. Especially game or, for example, moose. RecipeTips explains how it’s done:
The process of injecting fat into the interior of meat, generally by using a larding instrument to accomplish the task. Larding is a method used to add fat to very lean and/or tough pieces of meat. The added fat acts to moisten, enhance the flavor and tenderize meat as it cooks. Typically, a strip of lard, referred to as a lardon, is cut from bacon or pork and chilled to harden the substance. Many meat stores sell lardon for larding however, if the lard is to be cut from existing meat, slice the cuts on the diagonal to produce the most effective cuts for insertion. The fat may be seasoned with herbs, wine, salt, pepper, or other seasonings for added flavoring. The meat is then pierced across the meat’s grain with the tool and the fat is either drawn through or pushed into the meat.
A lard needle may consist of a slender, heavy guage steel needle, similar to a sewing needle, except much larger and heavier, that is used for threading a string through the meat that can be used for drawing a narrow strip of chilled fat into and through the pierced meat. This type of needle is most often used for smaller cuts of meat.
Keep that in mind in case any moose recipes come up during the debate tonight.
25 Responses to “Larding”
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October 2nd, 2008 at 4:13 pm
That’s bloody disgusting.
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:14 pm
you don’t need a tool for this. you just poke a hole in it with a small knife and jam your flavor suppository into the hole. you can freeze the suppositories, if they’re too soft at room temp. at least that’s how i do it.
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Really, who the fuck doesn’t know that “larding” a real cooking technique? Next thing you’ll tell me is that in addition to meaning screwed, people really do “cook geese.”
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I find all the pork and lard metaphors for whetting the Congressional palette to be kinda cool.
The pig really is a magical animal.
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:31 pm
That’s bloody delicious. Anyway, well known principle of French cooking: Fat=flavor. Also, the more disgusting and repulsive the practice for creating the food, the better it tastes: to wit: foie gras(which also employs the fattening principle), and veal.
Man loves him some cruelty. Now if only you cram a bailout bill with the financial equivalent of gavage, and the House republicans would vote for the bill unanimously.
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I prefer not to think of it as “larding” but of spreading the Vaseline. After all, the purpose is not to make it more palatable but less painful when applied.
October 2nd, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Actually, if one wants to be precise, a more accurate term might be barding. This refers to the layering of fat on top of (for example) a joint to be roasted. The classic example is, of course, turkey, where a generous application of rashers of bacon can save the world’s worst poultry meat from ending up dry, inedible and soulless.
Since the intrinsic nature of the beast in question is not altered, barding seems a better analogy for the earmark process – the initial legislation (joint of meat) is not altered or attacked, it is just adorned (with pork fat) to make it more palatable.
October 2nd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Phil,
Don’t tell McCain and Palin that this is a technique adopted from the hated French, or they might stop doing it.
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Hector,
Actually, it’s Philippe
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