re: Pork Shoulder Rillettes

For tose who want a digital text version. I've included the tips given.

Pork Shoulder Rillettes

Rillettes are meats cooked in lard, shredded, packed into jars, and then chilled and spread like pâté on toast. It is certainly an ambitious recipe, which is precisely why I love to put up jars of rillettes and give them to friends around the holiday season. Cooked duck legs and their fat, the skin and bones removed, can easily be substituted for the pork shoulder and pork fat.

1 lb lard
3 onions, Chopped
1 stalk celery, halved
1 4-5-pound boneless Boston butt pork roast
1 quart Basic Chicken stock
1 cup white wine
5 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Melt the lard in a large enameled cast-iron pot with a lid over moderate heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. While the onions are cooking, cut the pork into large pieces and season with salt and pepper.

Add the pork to the pot along with the garlic, celery, Chicken Stock, wine, thyme, bay leaves, and pepper flakes. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and slowly simmer for 3 hours.

Remove the pork from the pot and place in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, and mix on low speed.

Remove and discard the celery, thyme sprigs, and bay leaves from the pot. Slowly add the remaining broth from the pot to the meat in the mixer bowl, continuing to mix at low speed until all the broth has been incorporated back into the meat. Season with salt and pepper. Pack the cooled pork in a terrine or in small sterilized jars. Cover well and refrigerate. Jarred
rillettes will keep for 6 months.

Yield: 10-15 small jars


Board Tips

"Whatever jars you do not plan on consuming within the next week should be completely covered in a layer of fat. Surprised his recipe doesn’t mention that. Also, tap jars onto a towel on the counter to get all air pockets out. Oxygen is the enemy for food storage."

"The seal of fat will keep any meat not incased from oxidizing, and being prone to mold, which would ruin the whole jar. I have done a lot of terrine/pate work. I would always put a layer on top, and just scrap off when you pop it open. Your recipe has so much stock and cooked veg added back into your pork mix, without the fat i would worry about spoilage."

"You want a fat layer on top to mitigate oxygen intrusion. Essentially, you want the fat to create a hermetically sealed container. About 1/8" to 1/4" of fat layer should be sufficient."

"Also, that recipe might benefit from the inclusion of insta-cure #1. About 1tsp would do. Would help extend shelf life and add flavor."

Author: John Besh’s My New Orleans.
Source: BugAC

The recipe in Les Halles is a great one with a more pronounced herbaciousness if that’s the right word. Key is to let the rillettes sit for 3 days before cracking into them.

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Stadium Rat


FYI, you missed steps 3 and 4 in your text version if you wanted to edit.

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Thanks. My OCR program dropped that.