Larding and barding: piquer and barder

Piquer and barder belong to the classical French kitchen, where lean meat, game and poultry were protected from the dry heat of the spit and the oven by fat supplied from outside. Escoffier's Le Guide Culinaire treats both operations as part of the cook's preparatory work, and Larousse Gastronomique records them as established methods of the French culinary tradition. They are carried by the brigade and its apprentices, and passed on at the board as a matter of hand and habit.

Piquer, or larding, is the insertion of thin strips of firm pork back fat, lardons cut square in section, through the flesh of a lean joint with a larding needle, the lardoire, so that the fat lies within the muscle along the grain. It suits lean cuts such as the fillet and rump of beef, leg of venison, and the loin of hare. Piquer also describes the fine surface larding of a fricandeau of veal, cut from the topside of Bos taurus, in which small lardons are stitched just under the surface in neat rows. Barder is the covering of a bird or joint with thin sheets of pork back fat, the barde, held in place with string. It is used on game birds such as partridge, Perdix perdix, and on small poultry and roasts whose breast is lean and cooks quickly. Both depend on fat that is firm, white and neutral in flavour.

Larded and barded meats are served with the sauce drawn from their own roasting or braising juices, a jus or a reduced fond, and with garnishes of root vegetables, braised cabbage, chestnuts or potatoes. Game suits a red wine of structure, such as a mature Bordeaux or a wine of the northern Rhône. The reason is structural: the fat carried within the lean meat softens the tannin, and the acidity of the wine cuts through the richness that the fat has added.