Barding

Barding wraps or ties an external layer of fat, typically strips of bacon, pork fat or suet, around a lean cut of meat or poultry, such as a game bird or a beef tenderloin, before roasting, so the fat bastes the meat as it melts and keeps the surface from drying out over a long cooking time. Cooks generally remove the fat layer toward the end of cooking so the meat's own surface can brown properly, and when the wrap is bacon rather than plain fat, its saltiness can reduce how much salt needs to be added separately. Barding differs from the related technique larding, which threads fat through the interior of a cut rather than wrapping it around the outside; barding has particular value for cooking naturally lean game, where it compensates for fat the animal's own meat lacks.