Barding and Larding

How to bard, how to lard?  Images of larded and barded meat with instructions appeared in Miss Corson's Practical American Cookery in 1886...

BARDED CHICKEN OR GAME.

"The accompanying engraving shows a fowl or chicken, dressed and trussed, with a large thin slice of fat salt pork or bacon tied over the breast: this is called barding. The subsequent cooking may be by braising, baking, or roasting, as desired. After the fowl is cooked, the strings which are used for trussing and barding are removed, and the bird is served with any sauce or garnish preferred.

Any rather dry game, like partridge or quail, gains much flavor and succulence by being barded it is cooked.

 

LARDED TURKEY.

 

 

The accompanying engraving shows a turkey dressed, trussed with strings, and larded with fat salt pork, ready for roasting or baking. The larded parts of the turkey must be well covered with oiled or buttered paper while the bird is being cooked: the paper should be taken off just before the turkey is done, in order to allow the lardoons to brown. A young turkey larded and roasted, and served with a garnish of watercresses dressed with a plain French salad-dressing, is one of the most delicious of all poultry roasts.

 

The accompanying engraving … represents a case of larding-needles of various sizes; the split ends, in which the lardoons are placed, to be drawn through the flesh, protrude from the case."

Corson, Juliet.  Miss Corson's Practical American Cookery. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1886.

 

So, how to lard.  The dark point of the larding needle is shown coming out of the 'skin' in the bottom center and left of the square.  On the bottom right is seen the end of the needle with a piece of lardoon.  Once the needle is pulled through, both ends of the lardoon are left sticking out.  To the right of the square is a larding needle with the 'split ends' and two pieces of cut fat.
 

©2013 Patricia Bixler Reber

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