SC - A question about larding

[geneviamoas at juno.com]

Yea yu did . But it is useful and enlightening and appreciated. Thank
you. Genevia

On Tue, 15 Sep 1998 07:10:26 -0400 Phil & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
writes:
>The Cheshire Cat wrote:
>
>>   I'm about to sound real uneducated here for a little while.  I was
>> reading through some recipes in a cookbook and I found a reference 
>to a
>> larding needle (They told me to use one to insert piece of bacon fat 
>into a
>> piece of steak).  Now I like sewing and embroidery, but I've never 
>heard of
>> a larding needle, what it looks like or how to use one.
>>   Could someone please enlighten me as to the nature of this edible 
>embroidery?
>> Thanx
>> -Sianan
>
>All right, now, there's nothing to fear, I'm not going to do the Ham 
>Talk or anything!
>
>Larded Beef (or larded anything else) is essentially artificially 
>marbled with
>fat. Prime beef, for example, as opposed to lesser grades, has little 
>flecks
>of visible fat interspersed through it. By taking a larding needle, 
>which can
>be nothing more complex than a really big sewing needle in shape, but
>sometimes looks almost like  a big hypodermic needle without the 
>syringe part,
>and either attaching a strip of pork fat to the back, in the case of 
>the
>former, or filling it with a strip ofpork fat in the latter case, you 
>can
>insert the pork fat into your meat.
>
>If you have a larding needle that has a clip or hole in the back, 
>allowing for
>your strip of fat to trail behind it, you pass your needle entirely 
>through
>the meat, until only the fat is inside it, at which point you detach 
>the fat
>from the needle and repeat the process. If you have the other standard 
>type,
>things are a little easier: you stick the needle into your meat, and 
>either
>operate a sort of plunger, or you can just use your finger or a knife 
>tip in
>some models, to push the fat in and withdraw the needle at the same 
>time.
>
>You either have to cut the strips you're going to use, or in the case 
>of the
>hollow-needle-and-plunger type design, you can sometimes use the 
>needle to cut
>the strips from a block of fat, the way you would core an apple, by 
>poking the
>needle in, twisting it completely around, and pulling it out. Many 
>cooks who
>bother to use this technique at all, though, often like to cut the 
>strips by
>hand, so they can do cool stuff like marinating the strips in cognac 
>before
>inserting them.
>
>Some people often confuse barding with larding. Barding involves 
>wrapping the
>meat (usually a bird of some kind) in one or more sheets of fat, which
>protects the meat from drying out, but also generally prevents 
>browning. On
>the other hand, the fat used in barding can easily be removed after 
>cooking.
>
>Another aspect is the fat intake, and while that is a concern for 
>many, I
>should point out that often a big chunk of meat will have some rather 
>tough,
>gristly or gelatinous fat on it, which the cook won't want to remove 
>because
>the meat will dry out. Bottom round, or what I think the 
>British-speakers call
>silverside, is a classic example. Or, sometimes the last bits of fat 
>on a
>piece of meat will beleft on by the butcher for moistness, or out of 
>laziness
>or incompetence, nowadays, but will conceal bands of elastin which 
>make the
>diner feel he or she is chewing on a bullet-proof vest. One of the 
>good things
>about larding meat is that you can trim off virtually all the fat from 
>the
>surface, if you choose, without the piece of meat drying out in 
>cooking.
>
>There are numerous references to larding meats in period sources, and 
>Le
>Menagier de Paris bothers to explain the difference between larding 
>with fat
>and studding with cloves or other spices, so evidently there was some
>confusion among "laymen" even then. Modernly, it has become very 
>chi-chi to
>"lard" with non-fat items like truffles, shredded chilis, seaweed, and 
>various
>other stuff.
>
>All right, so I gave the Ham Talk after all...sorry! 
>
>Adamantius
>-- 
>Phil & Susan Troy
>
>troy at asan.com
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