Photo: Holmen Meat Market
Dr. Biggles, proprietor of the terrific food blog MeatHenge, mentioned lardonaise yesterday and it got me thinking about larding and barding.
A lot of you might not know these terms, so here's my take on it. They both involve adding fat to prevent moisture loss and contribute flavor to a dish. The main difference is that larding involves adding fat to the inside of your dish and barding is outside. Larding can be done by creating pockets stuffed with your fat of choice, bacon, salt pork, etc. or just rolling it up inside to create a roulade.
Barding is wrapping with fat on the exterior. Again it can be strips of bacon, pancetta, ham, or sheets of cowl fat. What's cowl fat? That's another post...
While I'm thinking about keeping meat moist, let's talk about basting. You should never baste with a liquid with less fat than what you're basting or you'll actually dry your dish out, because the hot liquids (your basting liquid and the juices in your turkey, for example) will try to reach equilibrium, which translates to a dry bird.
Sound familiar? Now you know why.
That is a great article. I done a lot of barding and larding but never stopped to think about the difference. BTW, I never baste my turkey for the reason you gave.
Hey man,
Cool, I was barding and didn't even know it. My favorite thing is to dress meat up in meat.
I baste with olive oil, especially when smoking meat over long periods of time.
Biggles
Fat wrapped in fat basted in fat. Mmmmm...
No wonder we're eating salads these days.
Just cause I'm eating it, doesn't mean I'm enjoying it. I enjoy Gravy, I eat salad.