Rillette

Rillettes
Rillettes du Mans
TypeSpread
Place of originFrance
Main ingredientsMeat (pork, goose, duck, chicken, game birds, rabbit), salt, fat
  •  Wikimedia Commons logo Media: Rillettes

Rillettes (/rɪˈlɛts, riˈjɛt/, also UK: /ˈriːjɛt/, French: [ʁijɛt]) is a French charcuterie specialty of spreadable meat paste made by cooking meat in fat.

Like confit, the meat is seasoned, submerged in its own rendered fat, and cooked slowly for four to ten hours. The meat is shredded and packed into sterile containers covered in fat. Rillettes is traditionally made with pork, but the technique is also applied to duck, goose and other meats such as chicken, game birds, and rabbit. Sarthe (Le Mans), Tours, and Anjou, all in central France, are notable sources of rillettes.

Rillettes are typically served at room temperature spread thickly on toasted bread.

A traditional serving of rillettes Le Mans with a baguette and dark chocolate.

Rillettes were traditionally made with fatty pork belly or pork shoulder. The meat was cubed, salted and cured, cooked slowly over low heat until very tender, then raked into small shreds and blended with the warm cooking fat to form a rustic paste. Rillettes could be stored in crocks for several months. In Anjou, rillaud was a speciality, plated in the shape of a pyramid and topped with the pig's tail; the rillettes were proudly displayed to the guest of honor. In time the rillette cooking style was applied to game birds and wild rabbit. The similar British potted shrimps are made with shrimp cooked in butter.

The dish has many variations. In general, rillettes are served at room temperature, as a spread for bread or toast much like terrine. Pork rillettes from the northwestern regions of Tours and Anjou are known for their texture and bronze color. Rillettes from the adjacent département of Sarthe have a more rustic texture, including larger pieces of pork and less color.

Balzac called rillettes "brown jam" (brune confiture). It is sometimes said that Rabelais called them "brown pork jam" (brune confiture de cochon), but neither the word rillettes nor that phrase appear in his writings.

In Quebec, cretons are similar to rillettes.

Fish rillettes

By analogy, spreads made of cooked or smoked fish combined with butter, cream cheese, mayonnaise and so on have been called rillettes since the 1970s. True rillettes recipes, where the food is cooked in fat for many hours, are not suitable for fish, so recipes for fish rillettes have "nothing in common with rillettes proper, but ... have a somewhat similar appearance", and are sometimes called "false" rillettes.

Fish rillettes generally consist of fish mashed into a creamy base. Smoked salmon, mackerel, trout, tuna, eel, and bluefish are commonly used.

Etymology

The French word rillettes is first attested in 1845. It derives from the Old French rille 'a slice of pork', attested in 1480. This is a dialect variation of the Old French reille 'lath or strip of wood', from the Latin regula.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Les rillettes". leporc.com (in French). Retrieved 2020-04-08.
  2. ↑ "All About Rillettes & Rillons Charcuterie". D'Artagnan, Inc. Retrieved 2026-10-25.
  3. ↑ Honoré de Balzac, Le Lys dans la Vallée [The lily of the valley] (Paris, France: Charpentier, 1839), p. 7. From pages 6 & 7:
    Les célèbres rillettes et rillons de Tours formaient l'élément principal du repas que nous faisions au milieu de la journée, entre le déjeuner du matin et le diner de la maison dont l'heure coïncidait avec notre rentrée. Cette préparation, si prisée par quelques gourmands, parait rarement à Tours sur les tables aristocratiques; si j'en entendis parler avant d'être mis en pension, je n'avais jamais eu le bonheur de voir étendre pour moi cette brune confiture sur un tartine de pain The celebrated rillettes and rillons of Tours formed the main part of the meal that we had in the middle of the day, between breakfast and dinner at home, the hour of which coincided with our return. This preparation, so prized by some gourmets, appears rarely in Tours on aristocratic tables; if I heard of it before being sent to boarding school, I'd never had the good fortune to see this brown jam spread for me on a slice of bread

    — Honoré de Balzac

  4. ↑ Bienassis, Loïc (11 December 2019). "Du brie de Charlemagne à la tarte renversée des sœurs Tatin : essai d'analyse des légendes culinaires et de leurs usages". In Situ: Revue des patrimoines (in French) (41). Ministère de la culture et de la communication, direction générale des patrimoines. doi:10.4000/insitu.25298. ISSN 1630-7305.
  5. 1 2 Fabricant, Florence (1985-06-05). "Rilettes of fish? Traditional dish sheds some fat". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-10-20.
  6. ↑ Victoria (2020-07-09). "Le Bernardin's Salmon Rillettes Recipe". Mission Food Adventure. Retrieved 2026-10-25.
  7. ↑ Vence, Céline (1987-01-01). Le grand livre des conserves, des confitures et de la congélation (in French). Hachette. p. 367. ISBN 978-2-7062-5468-0.
  8. ↑ Robuchon, Joël (1986). "Fausses « rillettes » au saumon". Ma cuisine pour vous. Paris : R. Laffont. pp. 64–65. ISBN 978-2-221-04564-0 – via Internet Archive.
  9. ↑ "Recette: Rillettes de maquereau et mayonnaise à l'ail". L'Echo (Brussels). 9 December 2022.
  10. ↑ "Rillettes de saumon et concombres en vinaigrette". Kerrygold (in French). Retrieved 2026-10-25.
  11. ↑ Fabricant, Florence (August 7, 2007). "Rillettes of Bluefish Recipe". NYT Cooking. Retrieved 2026-10-26.
  12. ↑ Editions Larousse, Nouveau Dictionnaire Etymologique et Historique (1971), p. 651.