[Sca-cooks] Larding (was) turkey roasters

[Barbara Benson]

> Masta A> You cut firm fat, like pork fatback or fatty bacon, into
matchstick
> strips, say, 1/8 inch x 1/8 inch by two or three inches long. Some
> cooks like to marinate these in brandy with chopped herbs. (Keeping
> them cold is a good idea, though.)
>
>More Masta A> You then use a larding needle, which is any of several tools,
ranging
>snip excellent description of larding>
> The fat does show, and some would say it spoils the pristine look of
> the breast skin of a roast bird, with all the little holes, but if
> you do it in neat little rows, it can actually be quite attractive,
> especially as the fat sticking out of the bird cooks and browns. Lots
> of older cookbooks have drawings of larded birds; they look sort of
> spiny.

Greetings,

I have had one experience with larding and it consisted of the typical
walking into someone's kitchen and asking "anything I can do".
Several hours and tons of rock hard pears later I masochistically ask
"Anything else?". This brought before me a small filleting type knife, a
hunk of fat the size of the most recent Harry Potter and what appeared to be
several well dressed out cats.
"Here, lard these conies"
"Huh?"
"Cut the fat into matchstick sized pieces, cut a small slit in the meatier
areas and shove the fat in."
So that is what I proceeded to do. I pushed the fat all the way in and you
could barely see where I had cut the meat. It probablly took an hour but it
got done.
 My question is, since I didn't have the needle and I didn't leave the ends
poking out would that still be considered larding? Just larding with poor
technique?

Glad Tidings,
Serena da Riva