1,542 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...

Potted meat (rillettes)

Name: Potted meat (rillettes)
Prep time: 33 min
Cook time: 6 h 13 min
Total time: 6 h 46 min
Yield: 1 kg 800 g
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 1 kg belly (streaky) bacon (unsalted); 500 g ham; 200 g lard; 18 g coarse salt; 4 g pepper; 50 g lard

Potted meat (rillettes) is cooked long and slow in fat. Rillettes can be of pork or duck. Here is the pork version.

463 K 2× 3.9/5 (43 reviews)

6 hours 50 min. difficulté

Easy

11.75 €

1 kg 800 g

6 Ingredients

Last modified on: October 3^rd 2019

For 1 kg 800 g, you will need:

1 1 kg belly (streaky) bacon (unsalted)
2 500 g ham
3 200 g lard
4 18 g coarse salt
5 4 g pepper
6 50 g lard
Total weight: 1,775 grams

Times for this recipe

Preparation: 35 min.

Cooking: 6 hours 15 min.

All in all: 6 hours 50 min.

When should you start or finish this recipe?

If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time

To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - ⌛ 10 min.

Remove the rind and any hard parts of 1 kg belly (streaky) bacon (unsalted), cut into pieces.

Stage 2 - ⌛ 5 min.

Cut 500 g ham into pieces.

Stage 3 - ⌛ 3 min.

Melt 50 g lard in a large pan over high heat.

Stage 4 - ⌛ 10 min.

Add the pieces of pork, and leave to colour a few minutes.

Stage 5 - ⌛ 1 min.

Turn the heat down to minimum and add the pieces of ham and 200 g lard.

Stage 6 - ⌛ 1 min.

Add 18 g coarse salt and 4 g pepper.

Note that the good ratio is 12 grams of salt + 3 grams of pepper per kilo of meat.

If you use a different weight of meat, you can calculate a new seasoning with this little calculator:

Stage 7 - ⌛ 6 hours

Cover the pan and leave on very low heat for 6 hours.

Stage 8

After 6 hours, the meat will be reduced to a conserve.

Stage 9 - ⌛ 3 min.

With a skimmer or wooden spoon, mix the lot. The meat will fall apart into small shreds and form rillettes.

Stage 10 - ⌛ 3 min.

Mix until reaching desired consistency: not too much if (like me) you prefer to have bigger pieces in your rillettes, more if you prefer the rillettes smoother.

Stage 11 - ⌛ 10 min.

Put rillettes into jars, removing meat with a skimmer, and cover the top with a little lard.

Leave to cool, then cover, then refrigerate overnight or longer.

Share with friends with a good bread, and pickles or mushrooms in vinegar.

The acid taste of pickles goes well the mildness of the rillettes, and if you also have a good red wine, then you will be kings of all the world...

Remarks

If you like to vary proportions, please try to respect: Half as much ham as fat pork (belly), 12 g salt + 3 g pepper per kilogram meat.

For the duck version, replace lard with duck fat, and ham with duck breasts. It's a very very good idea to use the fat from cooking a foie gras for this.

And to drink?

A good red wine, with plenty of tannins.

Source: Home made.

Nutritional information

	Proteins (gr)	Carbohydrates (gr)	Fats (gr)	Energy value (in k-calories)	Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe	190 RDI=70 %	20 RDI=1 %	950 RDI=140 %	9,340 RDI=470 %	39,080 RDI: 470 %
Per 100 g	10 RDI=4 %	0	50 RDI=8 %	530 RDI=30 %	2,210 RDI: 30 %

How much will it cost?

For 1 kg 800 g : 11.75 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.

Some other recipes using this recipe

Rillettes stuffed mushrooms

In this recipe, the mushroom caps are first sautéed, then filled with fried onions and a spoonful of rillettes, then baked in the oven. Here they are served with a quick pickle made from brunoise radishes with tarragon.
51 K3.8 60 min.

Fried rillettes

Rilletes formed into thin cakes and fried. This allows the fat to drain off during cooking and leaves crunchy and tasty discs of lean meat which can be served with mashed potato (purée).
137 K4.9 30 min.

This recipe uses (among others)

Other recipes you may also like

Stewed apricots

Here is how to make delicious stewed apricots, both an easy and a more sophisticated way.

July 12^th 2023818 K 143.5 1 hour 20 min.

Fish fillet with preserved lemons

A thick fish fillet stuffed with slices of preserved lemon - crispy on the outside and tender inside.

January 30^th 2013141 K4.3 40 min.

Windfall apple jelly

This jelly is an excellent way to make use of all those unripe apples that have dropped off the tree. They (or rather, their juice) makes a delicious jelly with a very delicate flavour. As these apples are green and generally tart, we need to use a little more gelling agent than for a normal jelly recipe.

August 19^th 2021191 K5 60 min.

How to succeed in making sabayon (syllabub)

A sabayon is a delicious and delicate preparation based on egg yolks and sugar, with a liquid added (wine, alcohol, fruit juice, etc), which is then whipped in a bain-marie until it is both light and smooth. Usually sabayon is sweet (syllabub), but you can make it savoury, in which case there is only egg yolk, salt, and the chosen liquid, which could be stock, reduced wine, roasting juices, etc... This recipe is for a...

November 12^th 2017955 K 54 20 min.

Small foie gras pasties

Dainty pasties, filled with a morsel of seasoned foie gras.

September 7^th 2018334 K4.6 2 hours

News list of cooking-ez.com

Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.

The 2 comments already posted on this recipe

1) Yes, streaky bacon is 100% pork meat.
2) No because real pork is not fat enough, and there is ham.
3) Yes but instead of ham only, you should keep streaky bacon.
Posted by jh december 12^th 2011 at 14:49 n° 2
In this recipe you do not say how much pork to use. You say 1kg of streaky bacon - is that the pork you mean? Can you not use real pork untreated and unsmoked? And if you use duck do you just substitute a kilo of duck meat? Thanks.
Posted by Lori december 11^th 2011 at 19:51 n° 1

Follow this recipe

If you are interested in this recipe, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the recipe is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.