When I was learning about rillettes, I came across a lot of French words; some of them I didn’t know and had to look up. I figured that I’m probably not the only one who needs a rillettes translation glossary (French/English), so I made one here for you.
Types of rillettes in French and English: Quick glance
| French | English |
|---|---|
| Rillettes | Potted meat (But we often say rillettes in English) |
| Rillettes de canard | Duck rillettes |
| Rillettes de chorizo | Chorizo rillettes (Chorizo is Spanish/Portuguese sausage) |
| Rillettes de dinde | Turkey rillettes |
| Rillettes de lapin | Rabbit rillettes |
| Rillettes du Mans | Le Mans rillettes (Le Mans is a city in northwestern France) |
| Rillettes d’oie | Goose rillettes |
| Rillettes de poulet | Chicken rillettes |
| Rillettes de porc | Pork rillettes |
| Rillettes de saumon | Salmon rillettes |
| Rillettes de sardines | Sardine rillettes |
| Rillettes de thon | Tuna rillettes |
| Rillettes de Tours | Tours rillettes (Tours is a city in western France) |
| Rillettes de truite | Trout rillettes |
| Rillettes de veau | Veal rillettes |
| Rillettes en croute | This is something people search for but rillettes in pastry isn’t really a thing. |
Now that you know there are so many types of rillettes (in French and English!), you might be curious about them, like I was. Keep reading to find out more about each of these types of rillettes, including what they’re made of, links to recipes and other fascinating tidbits.
Quick glance: Rillettes, also known as potted meat
Rillettes is a French word, pronounced like “ree-ette”or “ree-yette.” It’s a rich meat spread—and it can be chunky or smooth—generally made with pork (except the seafood varieties) and/or another meat. The English equivalent of rillettes is potted meat. Whether you say potted meat or rillettes is up to you. The English language has absorbed many French words and from my point of view in Canada—where our second official language is French—rillettes is one of those absorbed words. Of course, my French is rudimentary at best so the first time I said rillettes out loud at the butcher shop, it came out as “rill-ettes.” Oops.
It all worked out because after that gaffe, I learned that rillettes are easy to make and delicious!
Quick glance: Rillettes de canard, also known as duck rillettes
Duck is probably the second-most common meat added to rillettes, after pork. But you can also make rillettes using only duck because it’s a good, fatty meat. For example, if you’ve got a stash of duck leg confit at the back of the fridge, plus more fat and some salt and pepper, you can quickly and easily whip up a batch of duck rillettes any time you please.
In their book, Pâté, Confit, Rillette: Recipes from the Craft of Charcuterie, Brian Polycyn and Michael Ruhlman show you how to turn confit into rillettes in their “Rillettes from Any Confit” recipe. This includes confit made of duck, turkey, pork, goose or chicken.
Quick glance: Rillettes de chorizo, also known as chorizo rillettes
Chorizo is a mild or spicy sausage—which can be cured or uncured—made with smoked red peppers or paprika. Chorizo originates from Spain and Portugal and it’s another word we’ve adopted into the English language (hence the non-translated translation).
If you look for chorizo rillettes recipes online, you’ll likely only find recipes written in French, as I did. Several of the recipes are simply cured chorizo, soft cheese, tomato paste and basil leaves mixed in a food processor and turned into a thick spread. These aren’t traditional rillettes, but sound pretty delicious anyway (and easy too).
[This chorizo rillettes research reminded me that if I wanted to ease my way back into French, cookbooks would be a fun way to do this. If you’re a basic French speaker or reader, don’t be afraid to look at forcemeat recipes in French as many of them use simple and short sentences for instructions.]
Quick glance: Rillettes de dinde, also known as turkey rillettes
Turkey rillettes don’t seem to be that popular. The New York Times has a recipe for Smoked Turkey Rillettes and I’m sure the smoke flavour would be a good addition. But since a smoked turkey leg is already cooked, this recipe is a hybrid rillettes technique. It’s still cooked for an hour on the stove, but it isn’t cooked for several hours (like traditional rillettes) or whizzed up in the food processor with some dairy products (like seafood rillettes).
Claire, from the blog Plant & Plate, throws down the gauntlet with her article called, Turkey Rillettes (are Not as Good as Other Kinds). But before we eliminate turkey rillettes from our vocabulary, Claire’s turkey rillettes were “mediocre” (her word) in part because she used leftover cooked turkey which isn’t staying true to rillettes.
Anna Colquhoun, a cooking teacher and food writer, goes more traditional by using raw turkey legs and cooking them low and slow in her Turkey Rillettes recipe on her Culinary Anthropologist site. This is what I would do. Or use a duck leg rillettes recipe and replace the duck legs with a turkey leg.
Finally, if you bought a pack of turkey wings on a whim and don’t know what to do with them, you can try out Warren Elwin’s Turkey Rillettes recipe on the Eat Well site. I’ve eaten baked turkey wings and they’re not as good as chicken wings, so I’d definitely try the rillettes recipe using turkey wings if I had a stash of them. I wouldn’t buy turkey wings for this purpose though (because legs would be easier).
Quick glance: Rillettes de lapin, also known as rabbit rillettes
Rabbit is a lean meat and, especially for anyone who enjoys a high-fat lifestyle, lean meat leaves a little something to be desired. Brian Polycyn and Michael Ruhlman (in their amazing pâté book mentioned above) say, “Rabbit rillettes are also a delight, but they need to be augmented with some tasty pork fat.” They also suggest using veal stock in their “Rabbit Rillettes” recipe to put the rillettes “over the top, bringing depth and soul to the lean meat.”
Alternatively, you could use a fattier recipe, like Rabbit Rillettes with Apple Relish by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, an all-round meat aficionado. This one uses more fat (in the form of pork belly) than Brian and Michael’s recipe though Hugh says it’s “a lot less fatty than some [recipes].”
I’ve never made rabbit rillettes before, partly because I’m still new to the world of forcemeat and partly because I find rabbit a bit bland. But I’d like to see what the fuss is all about, so next time I see a rabbit in the grocery store or butcher shop, I’ll give it a go.
Quick glance: Rillettes du Mans, also known as Le Mans rillettes
Le Mans is a city in northwestern France, in the Loire Valley. It is famous for rillettes, the 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car race and cathedrals, including La Nuit des Chimeres, where cathedrals are lit up at night during the summers.
I found out that rillettes du Mans might simply be called rillettes. A couple of places had some information that suggested that rillettes du Mans have a “rustic” texture, instead of a smoother texture. But those sources were sketchy at best.
But the Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité (a French institution under their Ministry of agriculture, food and forestry, called in English The National Institute of origin and quality) has a slightly more helpful description.
They say (approximately), “The Le Mans rillettes are characterized by their structure rich in fibers and pieces of meat and their flexible and easily spreadable texture. Their taste characteristics are directly related to the choice of raw material and in particular the noble pieces of pork which undergo a slow cooking method followed by a separation of the meat, meat juice and melted fat, then a threshing which allows, in the end, a candied product and a good distinction of fibers/pieces.” (See the original French on the INAO site here.)
The Cook’s Info site says that for rillettes du Mans, “half the lean pork is replaced with goose.” This is the only reference to this I can find, and I have no idea if this is correct or not!
Well, no matter. Whatever it is, let’s take a minute to be thankful that the people of Le Mans decided to create this delicacy hundreds of years ago.
My suggestion: Make some Rillettes du Mans and then eat them while watching the excellent movie, Ford v Ferrari, which is about that 24-hour car race. If you’re like me, you’ll be delighted to hear Matt Damon talking like a Texan, plus it’s an all-round great movie.
Quick glance: Rillettes d’oie, also known as goose rillettes
According to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in his book, The River Cottage Meat Book, “Besides pork, the most popular rillettes are made from goose, duck and rabbit, often combined with pork.”
The interesting thing about goose rillettes is it seems to be common for more than the legs to be used. In one recipe, it called for leg and breast. Jacques Haeringer, an executive chef who writes on his Chez Jacques website, calls for a whole 8-pound goose in his “Goose Rillettes” recipe. I don’t love the picture of these goose rillettes on his site, but the recipe looks good.
Wade Truong and Rachel Owen—from the Elevated Wild site—have an unconventional Bourbon Goose Rillette recipe—they cook the rillettes in stock with no added fat. Shocking! It does look good though. [Totally off topic, but interesting: They also have an article called, How to: Build a Curing Chamber—in case you’re also into charcuterie.]
To buy a goose, visit your local butcher or ask at the meat department at your grocery store. They may be in the freezer section at the grocery store. I can’t say whether my grocery stores sell goose but then again, I’ve never gone looking. But if they can be purchased at the Real Canadian Superstore (they can, I just checked), I’m sure it won’t be too difficult to find one at your local grocer.
Quick glance: Rillettes de poulet, also known as chicken rillettes
The first things I noticed when searching for chicken rillettes were weird:
- There were two recipes called potted chicken that weren’t potted meat at all (full chicken thighs cooked in a pot and served whole … hmmm).
- Several chicken rillettes recipes I found were quite low fat. (Will this low-fat craze never end?)
There are two reasons to make chicken rillettes:
- Reduce cost – By using a traditional rillettes recipe that calls for pork and duck legs, you can make the recipe more affordable by replacing the duck legs with chicken legs. It might not be as tasty but probably still pretty good because the legs are dark meat (more flavour) and you’re still using a generous amount of tasty pork fat.
- Try something new with chicken – If you’re going for a chicken-only rillettes, it may be because chicken is your main meat and you want to try something new. This is fine but if you eat chicken because you think it’s more healthy than other meats, please read Dr. Georgia Ede’s article called, Meat: The Original Superfood.
Three chicken rillettes recipes I’d try and why:
- Chicken Rillettes by Food & Home Entertaining – This recipe follows the tradition of major pork fat—in the form of a pound of pork belly—so it should turn out well with texture and taste.
- Buffalo Chicken Rillettes With Schmaltz Toasts by Saveur – This one sounds delicious, plus it’s perfect for your Jewish friends who don’t eat pork or other friends who only eat fish and fowl (I have one of these friends so I’m always on the lookout for ways to make chicken more interesting).
- Chicken Rillettes by Beyond the Bayou – In this recipe, Brittany talks about how to turn store-bought confit chicken legs into rillettes in no time.
Quick glance: Rillettes de pork, also known as rillettes and pork rillettes
Pork rillettes can simply be called rillettes since pork is the main traditional ingredient in this dish. In pork rillettes, you can use many types of pork, including fatty pork shoulder, pork butt (tee hee hee), fat back and pork belly.
As with all rillettes, you can create smooth rillettes (so it feels more like a pâté) or a more rustic, chunky style spread.
I won’t say too much here about pork rillettes, except if you’re new to them, try this Classic French Pork Rillettes recipe from Rebecca Franklin on The Spruce Eats. This was the first rillettes recipe I ever made, and it turned out great.
Quick glance: Rillettes de saumon, also known as salmon rillettes
Salmon rillettes can be made with fresh salmon, simmered in butter, heavy cream and sometimes wine, as Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman do in their “Wild Atlantic Salmon Rillettes with Dill and Shallot” recipe. Or more simply, they can be made with smoked salmon, butter and a few other ingredients as in this Salmon Rillettes recipe by The Kitchn.
On the less traditional side, you can also mix smoked salmon with cream cheese and a few other ingredients, as Nicole does in her Smoked Salmon Rillettes recipe on her Culinary Cool blog. Nicole is living her “best life on the Canadian Prairies” and that includes salmon rillettes.
To make salmon rillettes more affordable, you can do what Lorraine Elliot does on her Not Quite Nigella site and use salmon off-cuts instead of prime fillets. Instructions for this are in her recipe called Making Treasure from Trash: Hot Salmon Rillettes! [I appreciate a lady who uses an exclamation mark in her recipe title.]
Quick glance: Rillettes de sardines, also known as sardine rillettes
If you’ve got a stockpile of canned sardines in your cupboard but the thought of eating them out of the can makes you retch, worry not. Sardine rillettes can be made with fresh sardines or canned sardines but most of the recipes I looked at called for canned.
As Audrey Le Goff says on her Pardon Your French site, using canned sardines “isn’t very traditional, but just as deliciously creamy and tasty.” Check out her Sardine and Cream Cheese Rillettes recipe. [And, she’s a real French lady, born and raised in France, so if she says tinned sardines work for rillettes, that’s good enough for me.]
Breaking news: I just made this recipe but with half the sardines and lemon juice out of bottle instead of fresh squeezed and it turned out fine. I’m not a big fan of tinned sardines, but this is probably what I’ll do to the rest of the tins in my pantry.
Quick glance: Rillettes de thon, also known as tuna rillettes
Like salmon rillettes, you can make tuna rillettes out of fresh tuna. And like sardine rillettes, it’s possible to make tuna rillettes with canned tuna.
If I were going to make tuna rillettes for deliciousness, I’d use Food & Wine’s recipe called, Spicy Tuna Rillettes because it calls for fatty tuna belly as the main ingredient. Plus, butter and cream.
If I were going to make tuna rillettes to use up cans of tuna I bought in case of a Walking Dead-type scenario, I’d try Mascarpone Tuna Rillettes by My Recipes. Though I’d use lard instead of olive oil.
I’m sorry if you’re a raving tuna fan and this section disappoints. Please feel free to drop me a message and tell me what else I could say about tuna rillettes here.
Quick glance: Rillettes de Tours, also known as Tours rillettes
Tours is a city in western France, about 100 km south of Le Mans. It is also famous for rillettes. And according to the article, What’s better than a rich French paté? (in The Guardian), “In 2013, producers of Rillettes de Tours secured EU protected geographical indication status for their product. Producers further north have been trying to obtain the same protection for Rillettes du Mans for 20 years.”
This status means that only artisanal producers from the Indre-et-Loire area (historically called Touraine) can call their product rillettes de Tours, which guarantees authenticity. This means you may make delicious rillettes, but they won’t be rillettes de Tours!
According to the Rillettes de Tours section in the French version of Wikipedia, rillettes de Tours have a golden colour, are cooked for between five and 12 hours in an uncovered cast iron pan and are traditionally made with Vouvray. Vouvray is white wine made from chenin blanc grapes from the Loire Valley, outside of Tours.
Most recipes I’ve seen for rillettes call for cooking in a covered pot for three to four hours so rillettes de Tours are a little different that way.
By the way, the French also call rillettes “pig jam” as it’s so spreadable, like jam.
Quick glance: Rillettes de truite, also known as trout rillettes
Trout rillettes can be made with fresh trout though it seems more common (and easy) to make them out of smoked trout. Either way, these fishy rillettes are made with mascarpone or crème fraiche and other ingredients to make a smooth spread.
Here are some no-cook trout rillettes options:
- Smoked Trout Rillettes with Radishes and Celery by Molly Stephens on the Epicurious site.
- Smoked Trout Rillettes by Lisa Hanauer on the Fine Cooking site.
If you’d prefer a mix of fresh trout and smoked trout, you can try Justine Schofield’s Trout Rillettes recipe on her Everyday Gourmet site.
Quick glance: Rillettes de veau, also known as veal rillettes
Veal rillettes are barely a thing. If you search for veal rillettes recipes, you’ll find a few but they seem to be from professional chefs and in the ‘challenging’ category, like this one, Warm veal rillettes, mushroom shavings and pickled garlic buds from Great British Chefs. This recipe has 21 steps!
A clue to why veal rillettes aren’t really done comes from Brian Polycyn and Michael Ruhlman. In their excellent book, Pâté, Confit, Rillette: Recipes from the Craft of Charcuterie, they talk about fat making rillettes so satisfying. Pork, duck and goose fat is creamy at room temperature, but beef and lamb fat aren’t. This meat that comes with hard fat is far less appetizing for most people (and less spreadable).
However, I did find a gluten-free veal cretons recipe which is a rillettes-like Québécois meat spread. This Veal cretons recipe on All Recipes is a good find because most cretons recipes are not gluten-free.
Quick glance: Rillettes en croute, also known rillettes in pastry which isn’t a thing except for this one guy making rillettes pies
When I was researching all the French terms that stood beside rillettes, I came across rillette en croûte in the search bar. En croûte means in pastry and you probably know this expression already from pâté en croûte and terrine en croûte.
Folks were searching for rillettes en croûte because—I’m guessing—pâté and rillettes are often confused.
So, I searched and searched for rillettes en croûte and rillettes in pastry and there’s basically one guy holding down the whole topic. Paul “Sweet Paul” Lowe, from the Sweet Paul website, makes Pork Rillettes Pies. These pies do look amazing and I’m rather surprised that stuffing rillettes in pie dough isn’t more popular. Perhaps one day, Sweet Paul’s recipe will catch on.
Conclusion
Okay, folks, that’s all for now. I hope this glossary of rillettes in English and French has helped you learn a little bit more about rillettes and at least one more word in French!
If you’ve got a stash of rillettes in your fridge or freezer and you’re not sure what to do with them, check out my article called, How Do You Eat Rillettes? Sandwiches, Nibbles and More!