Lardon
Encyclopedia
Lardon is a small strip or cube of pork
fat (usually subcutaneous fat) used in a wide variety of cuisines to flavor
savory foods and salads. In French cuisine
, lardons are also used for larding, by threading them with a needle into meats that are to be braised or roasted. Lardons are not normally smoked, and they are made from pork that has been cured with salt.
In French cuisine
lardons are served hot in salads and salad dressings, as well as on some tartes flambées
, stews such as beef bourguignon
, quiche
s such as quiche Lorraine
, in omelette
s, with potatoes, and for other dishes such as coq au vin
.
The Oxford English Dictionary
defines "lardon" as "one of the pieces of bacon or pork which are inserted in meat in the process of larding," giving primacy to that process. According to the Middle English Dictionary
, the earliest occurrence of the word is in 1381, in the work Pegge Cook; it advises to insert lardons in cranes
and heron
s.
and fatback
, or from cured cuts such as bacon
or salt pork
. Since the true French lardon is salt-cured but not smoked, "the flavor comes through cleanly, more like ham but richer because the meat is from the belly of the pig, not the leg." One food writer takes this as evidence that the French "do bacon right." The meat (fat) is usually cut into small strips or cubes about one centimeter (3/8 inch) wide, then blanched or fried
.
Some chefs recommend using pancetta
as a substitute; ham
is also suggested.
It is common for the lardons to be used for two distinct purposes in the same dish. The fat rendered from the cubed pork is good for sautéing vegetables or meat during the early stages of a recipe, and the crisp browned pork cubes can be added as a garnish or ingredient just before serving: "the crispy bits are used to add a smoky, salty flavor and a pleasant crunch to all kinds of dishes." The rich flavor pairs well with cheeses and sturdy leaf vegetables like spinach and frisée, for which the hot rendered fat can be used as part of the salad dressing.
Lardons are frequently used in French cuisine
to flavor salads, stews (such as beef bourguignon
and Julia Child
's coq au vin
), quiche
s (quiche Lorraine
), potatoes, omelette
s and other dishes. A particular Parisian use of lardons is in the salade aux lardons, a wilted salad (often made with frisée (endive)
lettuce) in which the lettuce leaves are wilted slightly by the addition of still-hot lardons and hot vinaigrette
. A nineteenth-century recipe for a pie à la chasse calls for beef to be larded with lardons made of ham and bacon. A traditional dish from the Alsace
region is the tarte flambée
, a thin pizza-like bread covered with crème fraiche
, onion
, and lardons. A regional specialty from the Savoie
is tartiflette
, which is made with potato
es, reblochon cheese, cream
, and lardons.
filets or veal (especially lean cuts), poultry
, and lean fish
such as salmon
. These lardons are to be cut in strips about 1/8" thick and 1/8" wide, and it is essential that the fat be chilled before cutting and threading. The technique is explained at length in the classic book of French cuisine
La bonne cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange
, which details two techniques: surface larding, or "studding," in which the lardons are threaded onto the surface, and interior larding, in which the lardons are left in a channel (made with a larger-sized needle than is used for studding) inside the meat. Madame St. Ange recommends larding for braised calf's sweetbreads (as does the French Laundry
cookbook) and for a specific style of cooking hare
. American food writer James Peterson specifically recommends using fatback for larding; salt pork, he says, "has a funny taste and won't work." Julia Child
recommends using lard or porkbellies (pancetta
); she too thinks that neither salt pork nor bacon work, and suggests blanching these first, to get rid of the overwhelming cured or smoked flavors. The origin of larding is from the Middle Ages, when edible meat was sourced from hunting game, and it was often too lean and tough because of the animal's natural physical activity, with larding providing today's equivalent of marbling
.
The needle used is a larding needle (also "barding needle" or lardoir). There are two basic kinds of larding needle, hollow and U-shaped. Hollow larding needles are about 5 mm in diameter with some sort of teeth or hook to keep the lard strip attached; they are passed completely through the meat. U-shaped larding needles, often called by the French name lardoir, are long needles with a "U" cross-section. Four larding needles, accompanied by two crossed turning spits, are found in the coat of arms of the Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs
, a French gastronomic society.
, they are called tocino
and are added to dishes such as arroz con gandules
. In the Netherlands
, pork fat is cut in strips or cubes and when rendered are called kaantjes; a typical addition to traditional foods such as hutspot
and stamppot
. In Romanian it is called "slană". In Hungary
lardons are called tepertő and are used, for example, in the savoury scone-like pogácsa
.
Pork
Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
fat (usually subcutaneous fat) used in a wide variety of cuisines to flavor
Flavor
Flavor or flavour is the sensory impression of a food or other substance, and is determined mainly by the chemical senses of taste and smell. The "trigeminal senses", which detect chemical irritants in the mouth and throat as well as temperature and texture, are also very important to the overall...
savory foods and salads. In French cuisine
French cuisine
French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...
, lardons are also used for larding, by threading them with a needle into meats that are to be braised or roasted. Lardons are not normally smoked, and they are made from pork that has been cured with salt.
In French cuisine
French cuisine
French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...
lardons are served hot in salads and salad dressings, as well as on some tartes flambées
Tarte flambée
Tarte flambée is an Alsatian dish composed of bread dough rolled out very thin in the shape of a rectangle or circle, which is covered with fromage blanc or crème fraîche, thinly sliced onions and lardons...
, stews such as beef bourguignon
Beef Bourguignon
Beef bourguignon or bœuf bourguignon , also called beef Burgundy, and Boeuf à la Bourguignonne, is a well known traditional French recipe....
, quiche
Quiche
Quiche is a savory, open-faced pie of vegetables, cheese, or meat in custard, baked in a pastry crust.The quiche is sometimes regarded as the savoury equivalent ofegg custard tart.- Etymology:...
s such as quiche Lorraine
Quiche
Quiche is a savory, open-faced pie of vegetables, cheese, or meat in custard, baked in a pastry crust.The quiche is sometimes regarded as the savoury equivalent ofegg custard tart.- Etymology:...
, in omelette
Omelette
In cuisine, an omelette or omelet is a dish made from beaten eggs quickly cooked with butter or oil in a frying pan, sometimes folded around a filling such as cheese, vegetables, meat , or some combination of the above...
s, with potatoes, and for other dishes such as coq au vin
Coq au vin
Coq au vin is a French braise of chicken cooked with wine, lardons, mushrooms, and optionally garlic.While the wine is typically Burgundy, many regions of France have variants of coq au vin using the local wine, such as coq au vin jaune , coq au Riesling , coq au pourpre , coq au Champagne, and so...
.
The Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
defines "lardon" as "one of the pieces of bacon or pork which are inserted in meat in the process of larding," giving primacy to that process. According to the Middle English Dictionary
Middle English Dictionary
The Middle English Dictionary is a dictionary of Middle English published by the University of Michigan. "Its 15,000 pages offer a comprehensive analysis of lexicon and usage for the period 1100-1500, based on the analysis of a collection of over three million citation slips, the largest collection...
, the earliest occurrence of the word is in 1381, in the work Pegge Cook; it advises to insert lardons in cranes
Crane (bird)
Cranes are a family, Gruidae, of large, long-legged and long-necked birds in the order Gruiformes. There are fifteen species of crane in four genera. Unlike the similar-looking but unrelated herons, cranes fly with necks outstretched, not pulled back...
and heron
Heron
The herons are long-legged freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae. There are 64 recognised species in this family. Some are called "egrets" or "bitterns" instead of "heron"....
s.
Preparation
Lardons may be prepared from different cuts of pork, including pork bellyPork belly
Pork belly is a boneless cut of fatty meat derived from the belly of a pig. Pork belly is popular in Asian cuisine, and forms a part of many traditional European dishes such as the Alsatian Choucroute garnie, the Swiss Berner Platte, and the German Schlachtplatte...
and fatback
Fatback
Fatback is a cut of meat from a domestic pig. It consists of the layer of adipose tissue under the skin of the back, with or without the skin...
, or from cured cuts such as bacon
Bacon
Bacon is a cured meat prepared from a pig. It is first cured using large quantities of salt, either in a brine or in a dry packing; the result is fresh bacon . Fresh bacon may then be further dried for weeks or months in cold air, boiled, or smoked. Fresh and dried bacon must be cooked before eating...
or salt pork
Salt pork
Salt pork or white bacon is salt-cured pork. It is prepared from one of three primal cuts: pork side, pork belly, or fatback. Depending on the cut, respectively, salt pork may be lean, streaky or entirely fatty. Made from the same cuts as bacon, salt pork resembles uncut slab bacon, but is...
. Since the true French lardon is salt-cured but not smoked, "the flavor comes through cleanly, more like ham but richer because the meat is from the belly of the pig, not the leg." One food writer takes this as evidence that the French "do bacon right." The meat (fat) is usually cut into small strips or cubes about one centimeter (3/8 inch) wide, then blanched or fried
Frying
Frying is the cooking of food in oil or another fat, a technique that originated in ancient Egypt around 2500 BC. Chemically, oils and fats are the same, differing only in melting point, but the distinction is only made when needed. In commerce, many fats are called oils by custom, e.g...
.
Some chefs recommend using pancetta
Pancetta
Pancetta is Italian bacon, typically salt cured and seasoned with such spices as nutmeg, fennel, peppercorns, dried ground hot peppers and garlic, then dried for at least three months. Associated with Italy, pancetta varies by region. It is also produced broadly in Spain.-Styles:Pancetta can be...
as a substitute; ham
Ham
Ham is a cut of meat from the thigh of the hind leg of certain animals, especiallypigs. Nearly all hams sold today are fully cooked or cured.-Etymology:...
is also suggested.
Usage
Lardons are frequently used in French cuisine
French cuisine
French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...
to flavor salads, stews (such as beef bourguignon
Beef Bourguignon
Beef bourguignon or bœuf bourguignon , also called beef Burgundy, and Boeuf à la Bourguignonne, is a well known traditional French recipe....
and Julia Child
Julia Child
Julia Child was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for introducing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which...
's coq au vin
Coq au vin
Coq au vin is a French braise of chicken cooked with wine, lardons, mushrooms, and optionally garlic.While the wine is typically Burgundy, many regions of France have variants of coq au vin using the local wine, such as coq au vin jaune , coq au Riesling , coq au pourpre , coq au Champagne, and so...
), quiche
Quiche
Quiche is a savory, open-faced pie of vegetables, cheese, or meat in custard, baked in a pastry crust.The quiche is sometimes regarded as the savoury equivalent ofegg custard tart.- Etymology:...
s (quiche Lorraine
Quiche
Quiche is a savory, open-faced pie of vegetables, cheese, or meat in custard, baked in a pastry crust.The quiche is sometimes regarded as the savoury equivalent ofegg custard tart.- Etymology:...
), potatoes, omelette
Omelette
In cuisine, an omelette or omelet is a dish made from beaten eggs quickly cooked with butter or oil in a frying pan, sometimes folded around a filling such as cheese, vegetables, meat , or some combination of the above...
s and other dishes. A particular Parisian use of lardons is in the salade aux lardons, a wilted salad (often made with frisée (endive)
Endive
Endive , Cichorium endivia, is a leaf vegetable belonging to the daisy family. Endive can be cooked or used raw in salads.-Background:Endive is also a common name for some types of chicory...
lettuce) in which the lettuce leaves are wilted slightly by the addition of still-hot lardons and hot vinaigrette
Vinaigrette
The word vinaigrette or vinegarette can refer to:*Vinaigrette, the salad dressing or sauce...
. A nineteenth-century recipe for a pie à la chasse calls for beef to be larded with lardons made of ham and bacon. A traditional dish from the Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
region is the tarte flambée
Tarte flambée
Tarte flambée is an Alsatian dish composed of bread dough rolled out very thin in the shape of a rectangle or circle, which is covered with fromage blanc or crème fraîche, thinly sliced onions and lardons...
, a thin pizza-like bread covered with crème fraiche
Crème fraîche
Crème fraîche is a soured cream containing about 28% butterfat and with a pH of around 4.5. It is soured with bacterial culture, but is less sour than sour cream. It has a comparatively high viscosity and a higher fat content....
, onion
Onion
The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...
, and lardons. A regional specialty from the Savoie
Savoie
Savoie is a French department located in the Rhône-Alpes region in the French Alps.Together with the Haute-Savoie, Savoie is one of the two departments of the historic region of Savoy that was annexed by France on June 14, 1860, following the signature of the Treaty of Turin on March 24, 1860...
is tartiflette
Tartiflette
Tartiflette is a French dish from the Haute Savoie region of France. It is made with potatoes, reblochon cheese, cream, and lardons.It is also commonly found with onions.A popular variation of this dish is to substitute the lardons with smoked salmon....
, which is made with potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
es, reblochon cheese, cream
Cream
Cream is a dairy product that is composed of the higher-butterfat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, over time, the lighter fat rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream this process is accelerated by using centrifuges called "separators"...
, and lardons.
Larding
A traditional use for lardons is in a technique called "larding," in which long strips of chilled pork fat are threaded (with the use of a needle) into meats that are to be braised or roasted, such as beefBeef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
filets or veal (especially lean cuts), poultry
Poultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...
, and lean fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
such as salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
. These lardons are to be cut in strips about 1/8" thick and 1/8" wide, and it is essential that the fat be chilled before cutting and threading. The technique is explained at length in the classic book of French cuisine
French cuisine
French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...
La bonne cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange
La bonne cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange
La bonne cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange is a French cookbook written by Evelyn Ébrard and published in 1927 by Larousse...
, which details two techniques: surface larding, or "studding," in which the lardons are threaded onto the surface, and interior larding, in which the lardons are left in a channel (made with a larger-sized needle than is used for studding) inside the meat. Madame St. Ange recommends larding for braised calf's sweetbreads (as does the French Laundry
French Laundry
The French Laundry is a French restaurant located in Yountville, California, in the Napa Valley. The chef and owner of the French Laundry is Thomas Keller....
cookbook) and for a specific style of cooking hare
Hare
Hares and jackrabbits are leporids belonging to the genus Lepus. Hares less than one year old are called leverets. Four species commonly known as types of hare are classified outside of Lepus: the hispid hare , and three species known as red rock hares .Hares are very fast-moving...
. American food writer James Peterson specifically recommends using fatback for larding; salt pork, he says, "has a funny taste and won't work." Julia Child
Julia Child
Julia Child was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for introducing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which...
recommends using lard or porkbellies (pancetta
Pancetta
Pancetta is Italian bacon, typically salt cured and seasoned with such spices as nutmeg, fennel, peppercorns, dried ground hot peppers and garlic, then dried for at least three months. Associated with Italy, pancetta varies by region. It is also produced broadly in Spain.-Styles:Pancetta can be...
); she too thinks that neither salt pork nor bacon work, and suggests blanching these first, to get rid of the overwhelming cured or smoked flavors. The origin of larding is from the Middle Ages, when edible meat was sourced from hunting game, and it was often too lean and tough because of the animal's natural physical activity, with larding providing today's equivalent of marbling
Marbled meat
Marbled meat is meat, especially red meat, which contains various amounts of intramuscular fat, giving it an appearance similar to a marble pattern.- Selective breeding :Marbling can be influenced by selective breeding...
.
The needle used is a larding needle (also "barding needle" or lardoir). There are two basic kinds of larding needle, hollow and U-shaped. Hollow larding needles are about 5 mm in diameter with some sort of teeth or hook to keep the lard strip attached; they are passed completely through the meat. U-shaped larding needles, often called by the French name lardoir, are long needles with a "U" cross-section. Four larding needles, accompanied by two crossed turning spits, are found in the coat of arms of the Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs
Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs
La Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs is an international gastronomic society founded in Paris in 1950. The Chaîne is based on the traditions and practices of the old French royal guild of goose roasters, whose authority gradually expanded to the roasting of all poultry, meat and game...
, a French gastronomic society.
In other cuisines
In many cuisines around the world, pork fat is used as a flavoring, and lardons are found in various other cultures. In Puerto RicoPuerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, they are called tocino
Tocino
In Caribbean countries such as Puerto Rico and Cuba, tocino is made from pork fatback and neither cured nor smoked, but just fried until very crunchy and added to recipes, much like lardons in French cuisine.-Preparation in the Philippines:...
and are added to dishes such as arroz con gandules
Rice and peas
Rice and Peas also called Moros de guandules con coco in the Dominican Republic.-Dominican Republic:Moros de guandules con coco is a traditional coconut rice and pigeon pea dish served on Christmas. Moros in Dominican cuisine is very similar to Jamaican rice and peas...
. In the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, pork fat is cut in strips or cubes and when rendered are called kaantjes; a typical addition to traditional foods such as hutspot
Hutspot
Hotchpotch Hotchpotch Hotchpotch (or in Dutch: Hutspot is a dish of boiled and mashed potatoes, carrots and onions with a long history in traditional Dutch cuisine.-History of the dish:...
and stamppot
Stamppot
Stamppot is a traditional Dutch dish made from a combination of potatoes mashed with one or several other vegetables, sometimes also with bacon. These vegetable pairings traditionally include sauerkraut, endive, kale, spinach, turnip greens, or carrot and onion...
. In Romanian it is called "slană". In Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
lardons are called tepertő and are used, for example, in the savoury scone-like pogácsa
Pogácsa
Pogácsa is a type of savory scone in Hungarian cuisine. It is also popularly eaten in nearby Slovakia, where it is known as pagáč. The Hungarian word derives ultimately from the Latin panis focacius, i.e. bread baked on the hearth or fireplace , via the Italian focaccia and, more directly, south...
.