1,560 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.

466 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

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).
139 K4.9 30 min.

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.
53 K3.8 60 min.

This recipe uses (among others)

Other recipes you may also like

Roasted cauliflower

This is how Yotam Ottolenghi does roasted cauliflower: whole, served with a green parsley tahini sauce.

April 19^th 202060 K 2 hours 35 min.

Tenderloin steaks marinated in red wine with rosemary

A recipe that brings out all the tenderness of this cut of beef, enhancing it with rosemary and by marinating for a long time in red wine. The tenderloin steaks are then fried and served with green beans.

September 19^th 202149 K 12 hours 35 min.

Pear tart with almond cream

This is a very quick and easy tart to make, as everything (or almost) can be done in advance. A piece of sweetcrust pastry, some almond cream and pears? You have "everything you need".

March 17^th 2011382 K4.3 1 hour 15 min.

Bouquet garni

Used very frequently in French cuisine, a secret of French chefs, it adds flavour to a lot of recipes, and it's easy to prepare. The basic principle is to make a small bundle of herbs, bind them in green leek leaves and to tie it up, so that the whole thing can be removed and discarded easily after cooking.

March 21^th 2017439 K3.5 15 min.

Leavened bread

It might be harder to achieve good results than with traditional yeast bread, but what a flavour! It also keeps better. This recipe is designed for baking bread in a wood-fired oven but, of course, you can use the conventional oven in your kitchen.

May 23^th 20171.24 M 23.8 6 hours 30 min.

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.