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To Lard Meat, Fowls, Sweetbreads, &C.

A method of inserting bacon strips into meat or poultry to keep it moist during slow cooking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

To Lard Meat, Fowls, Sweetbreads, &C.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut bacon into small strips.

  2. Use a larding needle to pierce the skin and a little of the meat.

  3. Insert the bacon strips into the punctures, leaving equal lengths outside.

Braise

  1. Place the meat in a stewpan and cover with thick slices of bacon.

  2. Add onions, sweet herbs, celery, and carrots around the meat.

  3. Pour in 1½ pints of water or stock and add seasoning.

  4. Cover the pan and cook on low heat for 2 to 3 hours.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Meat + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,880 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that melts into the meat as it cooks.
Meat or poultry
Provides the main protein that becomes tender during slow, covered cooking.
Onions
Build aromatic sweetness and depth in the braising liquid.
Celery
Contributes aromatic flavour to the braising liquid and vegetables.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the braising liquid.
Water or stock
Provides the moist cooking liquid that gently braises the meat.

The step that matters

Insert the bacon strips into the punctures, leaving equal lengths outside. Evenly spaced and evenly exposed lardons keep the strips anchored and distribute fat through the meat, so it stays moist and seasoned throughout cooking.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, celery, carrot):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, celery, carrot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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