I recently read a book about Victorian cooking techniques, and was highly intrigued by the larding needle. It’s an implement they used to thread small pieces of fat or butter throughout dry meat.
I couldn’t find a single contemporary photo of this being done to a chicken (I did find one of quail.) But anyway, so determined was I to try this out on some desiccated protein that I tracked down a larding needle online, ordered it from America, and created a fat-infused Coronary Chicken; one half of it threaded with pancetta, the other with butter. And roasted with fennel, apples, carrots, garlic and thyme.
It looks a bit unappealing in the before and after, to be sure, but MAN was that a juicy, tasty, delicious roast chicken.
