rillettes

In the Loire Valley town of Tours, charcutiers have been slow-cooking shredded pork in its own fat since at least the fifteenth century. The method is simple: pork shoulder simmered for hours until the fibers pull apart, then packed into crocks and sealed with a layer of lard. The resulting paste is pale, fatty, and deeply flavored. Tours still claims the definitive version.

The word comes from Old French rille, meaning a thin strip of pork, with the diminutive suffix -ette added to form rillette and then the plural rillettes. The earliest written records appear around 1480. François Rabelais mentioned the product in his Gargantua in 1534 as a pleasure of the Touraine table. The form stayed plural because the dish is always made in quantity and eaten by the spoonful.

Regional variations developed quickly. Le Mans, to the north, made its rillettes darker and more strongly seasoned. Brittany added goose or rabbit to the base pork. The Parisian version, arriving via nineteenth-century rail lines from Tours, became the standard café spread. By 1900, rillettes were sold in tin-lidded jars across France.

The twentieth century brought industrial production, but artisan makers survived in the Loire. A 2009 certification effort established Rillettes de Tours as a protected geographical indication, requiring pork from specific breeds and a minimum fat content. The product remains the canonical French charcuterie spread, eaten at room temperature on sliced baguette.