What does larding mean?
Larding is a culinary term for inserting strips or slivers of fat into meat before it is cooked. The fat, often pork fat but sometimes bacon or another cured fat, adds moisture, flavor, and richness as it melts during cooking. The word can name the fat itself, the process, or the technique: a cook might prepare a roast by larding it with seasoned fat, and a recipe may specify strips of larding. Although larding is closely associated with traditional roasting and game cookery, the technique is used with many kinds of meat. It is also understood figuratively in discussions of food preparation, where it implies deliberate enrichment rather than simply placing fat on the surface. As a verb, larding is more formal and specialized than common alternatives such as stuffing, though the two processes can occur together.
Strips of fat inserted into meat before cooking, or the fat used for this purpose.
"He placed small pieces of larding across the surface of the joint."
To insert strips of fat into meat before cooking.
"She larded the breast with peppered bacon."
Usually used in cookery and often transitive, taking meat or a particular cut as its object.
The word is normally used as an uncountable culinary term, but plural forms are possible when referring to separate portions or pieces of larding.
"The butcher prepared several thin lardings for the roasting tin."
Larding turns an ordinary cut of meat into a richer dish by weaving savory fat into its interior.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does larding come from?
The word larding comes from lard, with the suffix -ing indicating an activity or an associated substance. Lard itself is an English word inherited from Old English, where larde referred to pig fat; its ultimate connection with Latin lardum is commonly cited, although the precise history is not entirely certain. The related English word larder developed from the same culinary vocabulary and originally referred to a room for storing food and provisions. The technique is older than the modern English word, but the verb larding became established in the language during the early modern period.
Related word forms
How larding is actually used
Larding is primarily used in cookery and is somewhat formal or literary compared with everyday descriptions of adding fat to meat. As a verb, it takes an object such as a piece of meat or a bird.
Easily confused with larding
A larder is a storage room or cupboard for food, whereas larding is the insertion of fat into meat or the fat itself.