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To Lard Meat, Fowls, Sweetbreads, Etc.

A method of inserting bacon strips into meat, then cooking with vegetables and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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, Etc.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut bacon into small strips, called lardoons.

  2. Insert lardoons into the meat using a larding needle, leaving equal lengths outside.

Braise

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

  2. Surround the meat with onions, sweet herbs, celery, and carrots.

  3. Add meat bones and 1½ cups of water or stock.

  4. Season to taste, cover the pan, and cook over low heat for two 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. Onion + meattop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

  5. Celery + meattop 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 savory flavor that moistens the lean meat as it cooks.
Onions
Release moisture and sweetness, building a flavorful base for the braising liquid.
Meat bones
Release gelatin and flavor into the liquid, giving the sauce body.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Insert lardoons with equal lengths outside. Lardons must be evenly spaced and sized so fat distributes through the meat during slow cooking. Uneven lengths leave some areas lean and dry, and the exposed ends show when serving.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, carrot, meat. 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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