A LARDON BY ANY OTHER NAME IS JUST BACON.

Around our house, there is a quiet reverence for the lardon. Although it is made out of bacon, it simply is a different experience than just chopping up bacon into batons or bits. A good lardon is crisp on the outside and tender on the inside which is hard to achieve with any kind of pre-sliced bacon. To make our lardon, we're going to need to find some slab bacon first. Then we're going to slowly render out the fat over low heat. While the fat renders, the bacon will start to brown to a crisp, delicious cube.

My kids know when I'm cooking the bacon lardons and hover around the kitchen island. They quietly eyeball the pan to gauge when the lardon will be ready so they can be first in line. I typically always put any extra into a bowl on the counter and they disappear within minutes. They are almost irresistible so I grab a couple too.

WHAT IS A LARDON?

The technical description is as follows: A lardon is a strip or cube of either uncured pork fat or salt cured pork.

Let's break this down-

Fatback & Pork Belly: Fatback is a firm fat that can be used in a number of different ways for cooking. I use fatback for making sausage and have never used it for lardons. Next time I pick some up, I'm going to give it a try. The pork belly is where bacon comes from. It has softer fat and the delicious meat that we love to eat.

Salt Cured Pork:  This is pork belly that has been cured in salt rather than being smoked to make traditional bacon. I've used salt cured pork in the past and unless it is boiled first, it is just so salty that I find it inedible. I suppose that you could find salt cured pork (typically it is in the freezer section near the sausage), boil it, slice it and make some good lardon but it just seems like a lot of work.

Uses of Lardon: More often than not, the lardon is not only used for it's crunchy salty flavor but for the rendered fat as well. I've got a recipe for the most delicious frisee salad where we will make a gastrique from raw honey and vinegar that gets mixed with the rendered bacon fat. It is outstanding! On the same salad we'll put a poached egg, the lardon and maybe some crumbled goat cheese. Yum.

Lardon's can also be used in Slow Cooker Coq au Vin, quiches, omelettes, as a pizza or baked potato topping. Dunk them in some dark chocolate for a particularly yummy dessert option. Not a chocolate fan? Dunk them in maple syrup and bake them for 30 minutes for a great after-dinner nibble.