Lardo, with its corpulent-sounding name, may not be a master of first impressions, but the salt-cured pork fat has cultivated a solid fan base among chefs who love the richness and flavor it lends to dishes.
“It’s like spreading seasoned butter on something, but five times better because it’s pork fat,” says chef Bruce Sherman of North Pond in Chicago of the ingredient.
Traditionally, lardo is served thinly sliced on warm toast, but some chefs are incorporating the ingredient in more creative and playful ways.
“We’re silly with it,” says Ryan Bleibtrey, a sous chef at The Urban Farmer restaurant in Portland, Ore. “We use lardo all over the place.” It is wrapped around Urban Farmer’s chicken liver mousse, a part of the $23 charcuterie plate, and it enriched a seafood risotto on the Valentine’s-Day’s, $95-tasting menu.
Lardo adds great flavor, says Lisa Carlson, a registered dietitian in private practice in Chicago, but she suggests that it be eaten sparingly.
“Lardo, or pork lard, actually compares a little more favorably, nutritionally, than butter, when looking at saturated fat, monoun-saturated and cholesterol,” Carlson says. The USDA does not provide nutrition information for lardo, but it is similar to lard. “Cholesterol is a little lower in lard than in butter, but it isn’t really significant. The saturated fat is most important, and lard has less than butter.”
North Pond’s diners who aren’t interested in lardo can certainly push it aside, Sherman suggests. When wild salmon comes into season this spring he plans to wrap it with thin slices of the cured fat, cook it at a low heat for approximately 12 minutes, “so the fat doesn’t melt completely,” he says. “It moisturizes, enhances the flavor and fattens it up.”
Sherman expects to serve the fish with an herb salad, spring red onions, herb broth and warm grains. He’ll sell it for about $35, depending on the cost of the salmon. He’ll list lardo on North Pond’s menus, so guests can ask questions and learn more about it.
Listing lardo “It is a great opportunity to talk about an artisan craft that is just regaining popularity here,” Sherman says. “For me it is another way to use the whole animal or larger parts.” When possible, he purchases primal cuts or whole hogs and prepares his own lardo. “It is really important that it comes from a good pig with a deep flavor,” he adds. To house-cure, he rubs pork fatback with salt, sugar, bay leaf, cinnamon, peppercorns and thyme, then refrigerates it for about two weeks, brushes off the salt mixture and hangs it for about three to four weeks. “The best is aged at roughly 60 degrees in 60 percent humidity,” he says. TV personality and chef Mario Batali lists lardo on some of his menus at the 14 restaurants he runs in New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. At Batali’s Otto in New York, for instance, the “Otto Lardo” pizza is priced at $13. A little over a year ago chef Frank Bonanno replaced the butter served with bread with a hand-ground lardo at Luca D’Italia in Denver. Now guests rarely ask for butter or olive oil there. At Rooster’s Wood-Fired Kitchen in Charlotte, N.C., house-cured lardo “is served by itself with toasted bread and really fruity olive oil,” says chef Ramon Taimanglo. Chef Nate Appleman of A16 restaurant in San Francisco adds lardo to meatballs that sell for $19 as a Monday-night special and for $16 at lunch. LARD VS. BUTTER In Jackson Hole, Wyo., at Il Villaggio Osteria, chef Paul O’Connor tops a funghi pizza, $18, with house-made mascarpone, sundried tomatoes, garlic, sautéed shiitake and cremini mushrooms. Over that he adds sliced lardo. When the pie comes out of the oven he scatters wild arugula leaves over it. Chef John Shields changes his locally focused menu daily at Town House in Chilhowie, Va., but it recently featured loup de mer, pickled for 10 minutes and steamed with a thin slice of lardo. The $24 fish came with tea smoked pork belly and sweet shrimp consommé. Secret ingredient Some chefs, however, keep their use of lardo a little less obvious to diners. Chef Chip Roman of Blackfish in Conshohocken, Pa., prepares and purées lardo with an equal amount of raw foie gras trimmings and some rosemary. He spreads it on boneless, skinless chicken breast with sautéed black trumpet mushrooms and wraps it in salt-cured chicken skin. Then the stuffed chicken is vacuum-sealed and cooked in a low-heat water bath. At service he reheats the chicken in a water bath, removes it from the vacuum package and browns it to crisp the skin. Blackfish’s $29 dish is completed with dried cherries, chestnuts, chunks of bacon and chicken jus. “It is one of our No. 1 sellers,” Roman says. “But we don’t announce the lardo. If I did, I’d never sell it. “We did try to put it on the menu,” he adds, “but we got a negative response. A lot of our customers hear something unhealthy, [and] they’re out the door.” Confection application Back at Town House, pastry chef Karen Urie offered a sweet she named, “pear in the style of bacon” for an Appalachian Sustainable Development dinner. The theme was to use a locally raised pig – “from head to tail,” and appetizer to dessert, Urie says. So she cured peeled and cored pears in a brine of pear juice, brown sugar, vanilla bean, salt, black peppercorns and rosemary sprigs for about four hours. The fruit was served with sweetened white bean gratin seasoned with rosemary and topped with lardo as well as vanilla ice cream with balsamic vinegar. “I think it was well received and I would be excited to add it to the menu.” But she says she plans to refine the pear dessert further. “It was the first time I had ever done it.” ONE TABLESPOON LARD ONE TABLESPOON BUTTER Calories 115 102 Fat 12.8 grams 11 grams Saturated fat 5 grams 7.2 grams Monounsaturated fat 5.8 grams 3.3 grams Cholesterol 12 grams 33 grams