Recipes

Pork Rillettes

Appetizer · Charcuterie · French · Pates and Terrines · Pork

Pork Rillettes
Prep 20 minutes
Cook 4½ hours, plus 24 hours
Serves About 6 cups
Level Easy

Pork simmered for hours with fatback, white wine and aromatics until it falls apart, shredded, bound with its own fatty broth and sealed in jars. Serve at room temperature on crusty bread.

Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here for the Pâtés and Terrines section and is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

  • 2½ pounds pork shoulder, loin or belly, in chunks
  • 1 pound 2 ounces fatback or other fat trim (preferably not leaf lard or kidney fat)
  • 2 cups dry white wine or cider
  • 1 yellow onion (5 ounces)
  • 1 carrot (3½ ounces), peeled
  • 1 large bouquet garni (lovage, bay, thyme)
  • 2 tablespoons fine sea salt
  • 2 teaspoons black pepper
  • A few pinches of quatre épices (French four-spice blend)
  • 2¼ cups cold water
  • Crusty bread, to serve

Directions

  1. Put everything except the bread in a Dutch oven with the water and bring to a simmer.
  2. Hold at a low simmer until the meat falls apart in a caramel-coloured liquid, 4–4½ hours.
  3. Strain, keeping the liquid, and discard the aromatics.
  4. Shred the meat and bind it with about ½ cup of the fatty broth. Taste for seasoning.
  5. Pack into three 16-ounce jars, pressing out air, and cover with a thin layer of the fatty cooking liquid.
  6. Refrigerate at least 24 hours. Serve at room temperature with the fat cap scraped off.

Notes

Source Adapted from Camas Davis, “Traditional French Charcuterie Pork Rillettes,” Saveur. The source says the jars keep up to 2 months refrigerated.

Tours or Le Mans Both towns claim rillettes. Rillettes de Tours has been an EU Protected Geographical Indication since 15 November 2013, cooked long and uncovered to a darker color; Le Mans rillettes are paler and more fibrous. This simmered version is neither — no home recipe can be the PGI.

Food safety The fat cap keeps out air; it does not make rillettes shelf-stable. France’s 1993 listeriosis outbreak (38 cases) was traced to rillettes in unopened containers. Keep them refrigerated and eat within a few days of opening a jar.

The Pâtés and Terrines section’s Rillettes and Potted Meats page (/pates-and-terrines/rillettes-and-potted/) covers the history and technique behind this dish.

The photo The photograph shows a jar of rillettes du Mans.