Lardons substitute

Best substitute

Thick-cut bacon, cut into batons

Use the same amount by weight as the lardons you are replacing

Best for quiche Lorraine

Close match

Lardons do a two-part job: the rendered fat becomes the cooking medium for everything that follows, and the crisp cubes are chewy salty punctuation. Thick-cut bacon cut crosswise into quarter-inch strips is the standard swap at 1:1 by weight, and it is what almost every English-language French recipe means anyway. If the dish is a delicate one like quiche Lorraine or frisee aux lardons and your bacon is heavily smoked, blanch the pieces in simmering water for two minutes first to pull the smoke back. Diced pancetta is closer still, because it is cured but not smoked. Salt pork works too but is very salty, so blanch it and season the dish only at the end.

Other lardons substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Pancetta, cut into 1/4-inch dice
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
Cured, unsmoked Italian pork belly, sold rolled in a log or flat in a slab.
What changes
Best for
quiche Lorraine, coq au vin, boeuf bourguignon, pasta, risotto, braised greens
The closest match to true unsmoked French lardons, and the right pick when the recipe is delicate. It renders slightly less fat than bacon and takes a little longer to crisp, so start it in a cold pan. It is faintly peppery and sometimes juniper-scented, which is a small change in a coq au vin and invisible in a quiche.
3Salt pork or fatback, blanched first
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Cured pork fat, the historical relative of lardons, which renders beautifully.
What changes
Best for
coq au vin, boeuf bourguignon, beans, braises, cabbage
Blanch it for five minutes and drain, because it is extremely salty, then do not add any salt to the dish until you have tasted the finished thing. It gives you plenty of rendered fat but far less meaty character than bacon, so the crisp bits are blander. Perfect in a long braise, less good where you want the pieces to taste of something.
4Diced ham hock, gammon or thick unsmoked ham
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
Meaty cured pork cut into cubes, from the leg rather than the belly.
What changes
Best for
soups, braises, beans, lentils, split pea soup
Meaty and salty but much leaner, so you get very little rendered fat and the pieces stay firm rather than crisping. Add a tablespoon of butter or oil to the pan to make up the missing fat. It works well in braises and soups and poorly anywhere you wanted crunch.
5Prosciutto or speck, torn and crisped
Taste and texture differ
About ⅔ the weight
Dry-cured ham, torn into pieces and crisped in a hot dry pan for less than a minute.
What changes
Best for
frisee salad, garnishing soups, pasta, on top of braises, eggs
Intensely savoury and crisps almost instantly, but it contributes almost no fat and it is far saltier and more delicate than lardons, so it dissolves into nothing in a long braise. Use it as a finishing garnish scattered over the top rather than as the base of the dish.
6Mushrooms browned hard with smoked paprika and soy sauce
Taste and texture differ
Use 8 oz mushrooms, 1 tsp smoked paprika and 1 tsp soy sauce for every 4 oz lardons
Brown the mushrooms hard in olive oil until the edges crisp, then add the paprika and soy off the heat.
What changes
Best for
coq au vin, lentil dishes, vegetarian quiche, braises, salads
This is not lardons and will not give you pork fat, and it is worth saying so plainly. What it does give you is the savoury, salty, deeply browned depth that lardons contribute to a braise, which in a coq au vin or a lentil dish is most of the work. You lose the chewy bite; a handful of toasted walnuts restores some crunch.

What is Lardons?

Lardons is Lardons, or a single lardon, are short thick batons cut from cured pork belly, French poitrine, sometimes smoked and sometimes not, rendered slowly so the fat melts out and the pieces turn crisp and chewy.

Cooking tips

Start lardons in a cold, dry pan over medium-low heat. Rushing them into a hot pan seizes the outside before the fat renders, leaving tough pieces sitting in an almost empty pan.
The rendered fat is half the ingredient. Lift the crisp pieces out with a slotted spoon and cook your onions, mushrooms or croutons in the fat left behind. Pouring it away throws out most of what the lardons were for.
Blanching is the trick nobody mentions. Two minutes in simmering water pulls out excess salt and smoke, which is how you make American bacon behave like French poitrine in a quiche Lorraine or a delicate cream sauce.
True lardons are cut thick, roughly a quarter-inch square and an inch long, so they stay chewy in the middle rather than crumbling. Standard thin-sliced bacon just falls apart, so buy the thickest bacon you can or a slab and cut it yourself.
Smoked versus unsmoked genuinely changes the dish. Quiche Lorraine and frisee aux lardons are traditionally unsmoked and taste clean and porky; smoked bacon makes them taste like a diner breakfast. Coq au vin and boeuf bourguignon are happy either way.

Frequently asked questions

Are lardons just bacon?

Close, but not identical. Lardons are thick batons of cured pork belly, often unsmoked and rarely sugared. Bacon is thin-sliced cured belly, usually smoked and often sweetened. Buy the thickest bacon you can find, cut it crosswise into batons, and you have a very good lardon.

Can I just leave the lardons out?

You can, but you have to season around it. Lardons contribute fat, salt and savoury depth all at once, and without them a quiche or a coq au vin tastes noticeably flat. Add extra salt, a splash of soy sauce or Worcestershire for depth, and butter or oil to replace the missing fat.

What is the difference between lardons and pancetta?

Mostly nationality and cut. Both are cured pork belly. Pancetta is Italian, often rolled and seasoned with pepper and spices, and usually unsmoked. Lardons are the French cut, sold as batons and available smoked or not. They are effectively interchangeable, and pancetta is the closest supermarket match to unsmoked lardons.

Can I use packaged bacon bits?

Not really. Packaged bits are dry, frequently not real pork, and render no fat at all, so they sit on top of the dish instead of becoming part of it. Since half of what lardons do is supply cooking fat, this is the one substitute that misses the point entirely.

How much bacon replaces 200g of lardons?

About 200g of thick-cut bacon, or roughly six to seven rashers, cut crosswise into quarter-inch strips. Weight for weight is right because both are cured pork belly with a similar fat content, though bacon renders slightly more fat out.

Related substitutes

More meat & protein substitutes

Lardons substitute

Other lardons substitutes

2Pancetta, cut into 1/4-inch dice

3Salt pork or fatback, blanched first

4Diced ham hock, gammon or thick unsmoked ham

5Prosciutto or speck, torn and crisped

6Mushrooms browned hard with smoked paprika and soy sauce