Pork Rillettes
Rillettes is a funny word. It always sounds like a card game – “Care to play a few rounds of rillettes?” I never figured out how this spreadable cornerstone of the charcuterie world got its name, but I’m sure some etymologists out there might have some insight to share?
In the meantime, I’ve been enjoying being back in the kitchen. After sweating over my next book, a memoir with recipes, I’m excited (and so are my eyes) to step away from the computer, after scanning pages and paragraphs, checking French verb tenses, and verifying timelines of events, to get all the details right. Thankfully there are just a few more passes (lookovers) and now I have more time to spend back into the kitchen.
I can also get cracking on the lovely stack of recent cookbooks that came out this year. One that I was particularly interested in was La Vie Rustic: Cooking and Living in the French Style, the newest book from Georgeanne Brennan. Georgeanne has written a number of cookbooks during the last few decades on French cuisine. I’ve cooked from many of them over the years and always enjoyed her more rustic (or rustique?) take on French food.
Georgeanne lives most of the year in San Francisco but has French roots. Her husband is French, as is her son-in-law. And her daughter helped style My Paris Kitchen. So it’s like we’re one big happy family, with deep roots in both cultures and countries.
Speaking of family, traveling recently in the U.S., I engaged in one of my favorite activities: Prowling around the markets, butcher shops, and supermarkets, to see what’s available, and what might be the U.S.-equivalent to French products, so I know more about them when I write up recipes.
Meat tends to be especially vexing because the cuts of meat in France don’t necessarily correspond to those in the States. Perplexed visitors who dine out in France often are confused by onglet, palette, and sot l’y laisse, the “oyster” on poultry, known as “the part the idiot leaves behind,” in French. (Which admittedly is less confusing than calling a poultry part an oyster.)
Tackling this recipe, I had to figure out the French equivalent of fatback, which Georgeanne calls for in the book, for making the rillettes. I asked my friend Kate Hill, who teaches charcuterie-making in Gascony, and she told me that fatback is the firmest fat in the animal. I tried that the first time I made this and it barely gave up any of its fat when I cooked it. So I tried it again with the slightly softer fat from the pig jowl or belly, which a local butcher hooked me up with.
So you might need to go to a butcher and ask for belly fat, rather than soft fat, which is lard in English, not to be confused with French lard, which is what we would call bacon in the States. Sorry to be so confusing, but at least you get a glimpse of what it’s like to translate all this stuff between two cultures! (And which makes writing about it all a little overwhelming at times.) But at least you know that if you go to France and order a chicken or pork with lard, it’ll come with bacon, not slathered in pork fat.
Which reminds me of the time way back in the 1990’s when, on a visit to Paris, I ordered cassoulette, which turned out to be a big, heaping bowl of steaming tripe that the waiter presented to me, rather than the cassoulet I thought I was ordering. The upside is that I’ll never make that mistake again.
Both Kate and Georgeanne (and I) agree that making rillettes requires a little bit of intuition and making adjustments based on ingredients. Artisanally raised pork will throw off a different amount of liquid (water and/or fat) than its industrially raised counterpart, and I found myself wrist deep in pork trying to figure it out.
My conclusion is that it’s best to just follow the base recipe that I give, draining off most of the fat, then adding back what you need. The result is a meaty spread that’s great on a baguette along with some cornichons, or smeared on a baguette for a hardy sandwich.
| Pork Rillettes | Print Recipe |
| 6 servings |
Serving and Storage: Serve at room temperature. Rillettes will keep in the refrigerator for one week to ten days. I don't recommend freezing them as charcuterie tends to get soggy, if frozen and defrosted.
Related Recipes
Homemade Cornichons (Papilles & Pupilles, in French)
Monique’s Cornichons (Susan Loomis on Epicurious)
Oh my . . . That first photo showing the serving on a wood board stopped me cold. It looked like it was placed on some man’s whiskers or on a hairy pig. Oooff
Hi David,
Your rillettes look fantastic.
Try these rillettes if ever you visit Montreal:
https://porkshop.ca/charcuteries/
One type is cooked with an IPA beer from Quebec and the other with a rum from Quebec. Both very good.
This looks so very good. I love rillettes even more than pate. Thank you for taking this on and giving us something that looks doable for the home cook!
pork rillettes are the 1st food I look for upon arriving in France. I attended a fabulous week of cooking and touring with G. Brennan in Haute Provence years ago and miss that trip still today. I would sign up today.
I love a good rillettes recipe, and this one looks stellar. I like that garlic is in there, but I also wonder if some oniony business would improve or detract? Only one way to find out . . .
“Rillette” derives from the Old French “rille,” meaning a “slice of pork,” in 1480. “Rillette” was first used in the way in which you are using it in 1845. “Rille” is a dialect variation of the Old French “reille,” a lath or strip of wood, from the Latin “regula.” From the same Latin word, English acquired “rail” (as in “railroad” and “handrail”). Thanks for all of your delicious recipes and delightful writing, David.
Thanks for the info!
Must be the same root as for “rillons” which are chunks of pork belly marinated and roasted then eaten cold (at least in the Poitou region).
I’m a big fan of making rillettes with roasted pork hocks!
Yum!!
I still make your delicious sardine pate that you showed in your Paris market video. Sometimes when I’m busy and don’t have sardines, I cheat and make with canned tuna :0
Yes! That’s what I was thinking about this recipe – it would be amazing using fresh tuna instead of pork…not sure what fat, maybe just olive oil..
@Lynn, I re-created that sardine pate with canned sardines (in olive oil). That Paris market video is my favorite. I have made all the dishes in that video many times over. Wish there were more :)
I love rillettes and always have them when I am in Europe. Your recipe is worth a try.
I had no idea that little spot on the chicken was called an oyster. I LOVE those two little pieces and make it a point of getting to them before anyone else can, if they even know about them.
We always called them “bishop’s cheeks”; went along with the “Pope’s nose”. Maybe because I’m from a Catholic family or my Grandmother was English and Protestant originally? ‘Oysters” is certainly less problematic a term.
is that oyster what people in less civilized countries call the chicken’s arse?
We’ve always called that piece dan, the pope’s nose as Greg’s family does. The oysters are two oval soft pieces of dark meat that sit on each side of the backbone in an indentation towards the thighs.
I love that you can so readily buy sardine and tuna rillettes here. Carrefour makes nice ones. Also happy to read they are made simply with butter and olive oil. Your salmon version sounds perfect.
Care to play a few rounds of rillettes?
LOL! Or a casino game – the high drama and electric excitement of the rillette table:). Actually, I think there would definitely be electric excitement if I made these rillettes!
This immediately made me think of the French Canadian savoury potted pork called Cretons. Looks like the next cool rainy day I get I’m going to have to make both of these. :)
I didn’t know that cretons were so I looked them up and they are similar, except the recipes I saw mostly used ground meat and had bread (or breadcrumbs). Similar, but different! : )
Thanks, David. The recipe looks divine! I also appreciate the difficulty of translating meat cuts, etc. On that point, bear in mind that, outside North America, “cider” is alcoholic by definition, and sticking the word “apple” in front of it is as meaningful as saying “grape burgundy” (what else would it be made of?). :-)
I love rillettes, and while I’m living in Paris I want to make sure to keep it around the house, but I’m not sure where a good place is to buy it. Everything I see at my local Monoprix just looks kind of gross in its jar, and the charcuterie in my neighborhood doesn’t appear to carry it. Anyone have any ideas? I’m living in the 4th but am very willing to travel for rillettes.
So very grateful for this website and all of David’s work.
When does the thyme go in? During macerating or cooking or both.
You can either add it during the marinating/macerating, or later during cooking. I left the branches in during the whole time and plucked them out right before mashing. Sorry it wasn’t clear! : )
Is your new book in French, or are you just referring to all the French words I know you’ll put in?
Really looking forward to this book; it should be fun! Please put in lots of the juicy bits!
Sheila
My husband LOVES rillettes, especially duck, but I haven’t yet dared to make them. To me, the cornichons are the best part! They are a great counterpoint to the creamy rillettes.
In Houston I buy pork at a farmers market from a guy down in Wharton that raises heritage pigs. Picked up some beautiful pearly white fat last week and rendered about a quart of lard.
I put the rillettes in small crocks then top off with more lard to seal. Michael Ruhlman says this will preserve them for two weeks. But they usually don’t last that long anyway.
I live far away from anywhere that actually has a butcher of any variety–so both fatback and pork belly fat (or even pork belly!) are entirely out of my reach. I do, however, have a cache of pork lard. I know they are not the same, but in a pinch, would lard work?
Yes, although I would add about half of the amount called for of fatback. Let me know how it turns out if you try it!
I made this recipe using local, pasture raised pork shoulder and guanciale.
It is so good! Thank you for a great recipe that made the house smell delicious!
Not to sound all Star Wars, but this is the recipe I was looking for! I remember something like this from a picnic years ago, and have some fresh, crispy radishes and thought of it. THANK YOU, thank you, thank you! Making tomorrow…
I’m a thoroughly inexperienced cook, have never tried these, and they sound delicious. I’ve made two attempts: the first left more liquid than rendered fat; it was insufficient fat to what was required to jar the rillettes (my family munched on the pork and loved it, thus the second try). The second ended with the same challenge despite adding extra pork belly. Is the liquid part that separates from the fat still usable? Am I missing out on something?
It’s hard to pin down what happened since there is a very wide variation in pork, depending on how it’s raised, what race it is, etc. As mentioned, I had plenty of fat using the 5 ounces extra fatback. As mentioned “My conclusion is that it’s best to just follow the base recipe that I give, draining off most of the fat, then adding back what you need.” But if you need more fat, you can always supplement it with something like duck fat, or add enough liquid to make it a spread.
Thank you, David!