Larding
INGREDIENTS. and larding-needle. - Bacon Bacon for larding should be firm and fat and ought to be cured without any saltpetre, as this reddens white meats. Lay it on a table, the hands downwards; trim off any rusty part and cut it into slices of an equal thickness. Place the slices one on the top of another and cut them evenly into narrow strips, so arranging it that every piece of bacon is of the same size.
Bacon for fricandeaux, poultry and game, should be about 2 inches in length and rather more than one-eighth of an inch in width. If for larding fillets of beef or loin of veal, the pieces of bacon must be thicker.
The following recipe of Soyer is, we think, very explicit; and any cook, by following the directions here given, may be able to lard, if not well, sufficiently for general use:- "Have the fricandeaux trimmed; lay them lengthwise upon a clean napkin across your hand, forming a kind of bridge with your thumb at the part where you are about to LARK PIE. commence; then with the point of the larding-needle make three distinct lines across, inch apart; run the needle into the third line, at the farther side of the fricandeaux, and bring it out at the first, placing one of the lardoons in it; draw the needle through, BACON FO RLARDING, AND LARDING-NEEDLE. leaving out 1 inch of the bacon at each line; proceed thus to the end of the row; then make another line 1/2 inch distant, stick in another row of lardoons, bringing them out at the second line, leaving the ends of the bacon out all the same length; make the next row again at the same distance, bringing the ends out between the lardoons of the first row, proceeding in this manner until the whole surface is larded in chequered rows. Everything else is larded in a similar way; and, in the case of poultry, hold the breast over a charcoal fire for one minute, or dip it into boiling water, in order to make the flesh firm."
Lark Pie. INGREDIENTS for pie for 6 persons. A few thin slices of beef, the same of bacon, 9 larks, flour; for stuffing, 1 teacupful of bread-crumbs, teaspoonful of minced lemon-peel, 1/4 teaspoonful of minced parsley, 1 egg, salt and pepper to taste, 1 teaspoonful of chopped shalot, pint of weak stock or water, puff-paste.
AVERAGE COST, 3s.
Make a stuffing of bread-crumbs, minced lemon-peel, parsley and the yolk of an egg, all of which should be well mixed together; roll the larks in flour and stuff them. Line the bottom of a pie-dish with a few slices of beef and bacon; over these place the larks and season with salt, pepper, minced parsley and chopped shalot in the above proportion. Pour in the stock or water, cover with crust and bake for an hour in a moderate oven. During the time the pie is baking, shake it 2 or 3 times to assist in thickening the gravy, and serve very hot.
TIME.-1 hour.
SEASONABLE. -In full season in November
Two things sit side by side here: a working description of how to lard meat, which is still sound practice, and a pie built on nine skylarks, which cannot be made now. The larding notes are worth reading; the pie is a historical document only.
- Larks are protected birdsSkylarks and other small songbirds are protected in Britain and, with narrow national exceptions, across Europe; in Britain they cannot lawfully be taken, sold or eaten. There is no lawful supply here and no substitute that makes this recipe as written; if you want a small-bird pie, use a current recipe for quail or squab from a licensed supplier.
- The bacon for lardoonsBeeton wants fat bacon cured without saltpetre, because nitrate turns the pale flesh of veal and poultry pink. Most modern bacon is cured with nitrite, so for white meats use unsmoked fatback or fresh pork fat instead, chilled hard before slicing.
- Cut sizesFor fricandeau, poultry and game the lardoons are about 2 inches long and a shade over an eighth of an inch wide. For fillet of beef or loin of veal the book says only to cut them thicker, so they do not melt away entirely.
- Keep the fat cold, keep your hands coolThe hinge of the whole operation. Soft fat smears, tears the needle track and will not draw through; fat straight from the refrigerator, handled quickly, feeds cleanly and leaves the tidy chequered rows Soyer describes.
- The larding needleThe tool intended is a hinged or clipped steel needle that grips one end of the lardoon while the point is pushed through the meat. These are still sold; a trussing needle or a narrow boning knife plus tweezers will do at a pinch, but the rows will be less even.
- Firming poultry before lardingHolding the breast over a flame for a minute, or dipping it in boiling water, tightens the skin so the needle does not drag. A brief dip in just-boiled water is the easier version, followed by thorough drying.
- Why lard at allLarding is rarely needed for ordinary roasts today. It still earns its place with very lean cuts — venison haunch, veal, wild rabbit — where there is no internal fat to baste from within.
Larding belongs to a period when butchers' animals were leaner, slower-grown and often older, and when a lean roast without added fat simply dried out. The technique of threading strips of pork fat through the grain with a hinged needle is often traced to French practice, though larding is attested in English cookery well before that influence, and Beeton quotes Alexis Soyer — the Reform Club chef and the most famous cook in Victorian Britain — for the step-by-step description, a mark of how much authority his name carried in the 1860s. The lark pie that follows on the same page is a reminder of a food economy now closed to us: small birds were netted in quantity, sold by the dozen in provincial markets, and treated as an autumn delicacy, with November given as the height of the season. Legal protection for wild birds began in the nineteenth century, with the Wild Birds Protection Acts from 1880, and the dish passed out of the kitchen and into the reference shelf.