Lading Needle

[flgatorguy87]

Does anyone around here ever use a larding Needle? I've always wanted to try it on certain cuts and it seems like a natural fit for smoking. I remember talking about them and passing them around in Culinary School years ago but I never got to use one.

 

[pops6927]

I've used a larding needle many, many times.  There are two basic types, a split needle and an eye needle:

Split needle:

split larding needle.jpg

• pops6927
• Jun 6, 2015

 eye needle:

eye larding needle.jpg

• pops6927
• Jun 6, 2015

The split needle is for putting strips of beef, pork, venison, lamb, etc.into a roast:

larding needle demo.jpg

• pops6927
• Jun 6, 2015

An eye needle can be used in that manner, but hard to keep the strips of fat from breaking.  It is used more for tying fat onto a roast:

fat cap larding2.jpg

• pops6927
• Jun 6, 2015

You would put the string through the eye then push the needle through the roast, releasing the string, then pull it out and tie the fat onto the roast.

Another thing this kind of needle can do is to push the needle through the roast, insert the string, pull it back through, then tie the string to make a loop.  Very handy to hang up a number of roasts on a meat tree, etc.