Did it work out?
One click, and we know how the recipe works in a real kitchen.
Cooking
Autumn tip: fantastic lamb rillettes
· 4 servings
Get some raw, unrendered lard
In the recipe I traditionally follow for rillettes, you start with lard that's cut into cubes and rendered down. I had a bit of bad luck, though — my favourite butcher was out of raw lard. So I used lard that was already rendered.
Brown the meat in the lard
I melted the lard in a pot and added the meat, cut into cubes. Brown the meat thoroughly in the fat it's simmering in, taking care it doesn't burn. Once the meat was nicely browned, I added a splash of water and let it simmer gently under a lid.
Add the seasoning
After three hours, add the salt, freshly ground pepper, garlic, onion sliced into half-rings (it will completely melt away with further cooking) and a sprig of sage. Stir everything together and let it simmer for another 3 to 5 hours, this time without the lid. The meat will fall completely apart.
Remove anything solid
If you worked with bone-in meat (duck, for example), now's the time to pull out all the bones, the sage, and anything else that doesn't belong in the rillettes.
Fill the bowls
Now scoop out the meat with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat behind, and pack it into your prepared containers. I use small ramekins, but any ceramic dishes, aluminium tins or jars will work just as well.
Keeps for a week in the fridge
Pour the fat left in the pot over the top of the filled containers to seal them. Let everything cool completely, cover the surface (with cling film, for example) and store in the fridge, where it will keep for about a week.
Or freeze it
If you'd like to keep your rillettes longer, you can freeze it without any trouble. Though in our house that's never really an issue — some of it gets given away, and the rest we simply eat.