Easy Smoked Pork Rillette: American BBQ meets French Charcuterie

Pork Rillette (pronounced ree-yet) is a classic French charcuterie technique for preserving slow-cooked meat. Typically rillettes are made of heavily seasoned pork or duck cooked in its own fat (aka confit) or a fatty braising liquid until meltingly tender. Then it is chopped and shredded, mixed with more fat, packed into jars, and sealed with even more fat on top. Suffice to say, this is not a low-fat dish and I am 100% ok with that. The layer of fat on top effectively acts as a barrier to air making it possible to store rillettes in your fridge for weeks or even longer and they actually taste better after “ripening” for a couple of days or more in the fridge.

Rillettes are typically served at room temperature on crusty bread with pickles and mustard, similar to pâté. They are rich, flavorful, and satisfying and make the perfect quick lunch, picnic item, and party appetizer. You can make several jars to store for later or stock your freezer. From an effort to reward standpoint, rillettes pay off in a big way. And these rillettes, made with smoked pork are ridiculously easy to pull together, especially if you already have a big pork shoulder on the smoker.

I used to make rillettes for my Charcuterie Club members out of my commercial kitchen. Braising a 40 lb batch of pork shoulder, hand shredding that much meat, tasting, seasoning, tasting, seasoning, and packing over 100 little ramekins for vacuum sealing was …a project. It made me forget how easy this little gem of a technique can be when done on the small scale, casually, in the home kitchen. That was until the other day, when I smoked a bunch of pork shoulder and realized I had more leftovers than I was going to use. So I chopped some up, mixed it with the pork drippings, packed it into jars, and covered it with fat and voila, a perfect little snack for later in the week, or next week, or the week after – whenever I got around to them. These came together in 5 minutes max (not including the time to smoke the meat).

Since this was an impromptu project, I didn’t take detailed recipes notes for you, but you really don’t need them anyway. Here’s step by step instruction on how to make smoked pork rillettes.

HOW TO MAKE SMOKED PORK RILLETTES

YOU WILL NEED:

• 1 lb Smoked Pork Shoulder (still warm off the smoker)
• 5-8 Tablespoons Porky Juices
• About 1/2 cup melted fat
• 4-6 8 oz jars (8-12 4 oz jars)
• Serves about 8-12 lunch portions or 20-30 appetizer portions.

1. Smoke a pork shoulder low and slow until fork tender. Wrapping it in tin foil 1/2-3/4 of the way through cooking.
2. Remove the pork from the smoker, set aside about 1 lb (about 3 cups) for the rillettes and let it rest in the tin foil (or in a mixing bowl to catch all the porky juices) until just warmer than body temp (about 1-2 hours).
3. Chop the pork shoulder against the grain of the meat 1/2-1 inch thick. Then using your hands (I preferred wearing gloves for this), smoosh the meat into a mxing bowl.
4. Add 5-8 Tablespoons of the fatty pork drippings. Smoosh between your hands some more.
5. Taste and season. It should be heavily seasoned. It will taste less salty when eaten at room temperature than it doesn now while it is warm. Depending on how you seasoned your smoked pork, you may also want to add garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, a pinch of cayenne or piment d’espellette, ground black pepper, herbs de Provence or any of your favorite seasonings here.
6. Continue mixing with your hands until it seems fairly smooth and evenly mixed. You are going for a spreadable paste. Taste again and adjust as needed. It should be very flavorful.
7. Pack into clean jars (4-8 oz jars are ideal). Cover with plastic wrap and transfer to the fridge until cooled.
8. Melt about 1/2 cup of fat (lard, bacon fat, butter, duck fat) into a liquid measuring cup with a little pour spout or you could use olive oil if you are in a pinch (but it wont travel as well). Using the back side of spoon, smooth out the surface of the rillette. Pour the fat over and cover by at least 1/8 inch. Make sure there is no meat sticking out and tilt and rotate the jars so the fat reaches the wall of the jar all the way around.
9. Put a lid on the jar or re-wrap with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for weeks or the freezer for months.

TO SERVE RILLETTES

1. Pull the rillette out of the fridge for 30 minutes or 1 hour. They are best enjoyed at room temperature when the fat layer on top is soft and everything is nice and speadable.
2. Serve with your favorite accoutrements. Baguette, cornichons and dijon are traditional if your seasonings lean French. However, if you have embraced the flavors of American Smoked Pork, you may want to serve your rillettes with Chow Chow Relish or pickled red onion or sweet and spicy pickled jalapenos.