Potted Pork with Mace and Mustard (and Bonus Cracklings)

Photo by Michael Piazza / Styled by Catrine Kelty

Many recipes for pork rillettes use a combination of shoulder and belly but this one, based on Jane Grigson’s Rillettes de Paris, is all belly. It requires a watchful eye and hours on the stove, so it’s particularly well suited to long days spent at home. Unlike most pork belly recipes, the goal here is to keep the meat from crisping, so the flame should be as low as possible. If you use skin-on pork, your patience will be rewarded when the belly is done—after all that waiting, you deserve a little crispy skin.

Makes about 5 ramekins or jars

2 pounds skin-on pork belly
kosher salt
black pepper
2 ounces pork fat
4 bay leaves
1 teaspoon mace
1½ teaspoons Colman’s mustard

Salt pork belly thoroughly and bring to room temperature.

Cut pork into 2-inch-wide strips.

In a cast-iron skillet, melt pork fat over a low flame.

Add pork belly pieces to pan, keeping flame as low as possible. Tuck bay leaves among the pork pieces.

Gently cook over low flame for 5 hours, turning occasionally to cook evenly on all sides. Pour off and reserve excess fat as needed, about once per hour. Do not allow meat to brown.

Remove meat to a cutting board. When cool enough to handle, remove tough outer pork skins, leaving about ¼-inch of fat on each piece of skin. Preheat oven to 325°F.

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse pork belly, mace, mustard and black pepper until smooth, adding reserved pork fat as needed to create a spreadable texture. Taste for seasoning.

Rub strips of pork skin with salt and bake at 325°F for an hour, or until golden and crispy. Eat immediately.

Spoon pork into clean jars or ramekins, leaving ¼ inch at the top and taking care to spread evenly, avoiding air pockets.

Seal pork in containers with reserved fat and refrigerate at least 1 day to age, and up to 6 months.

This recipe appeared in the Winter 2021 issue as part of a larger story on Potted Meats and Preserved Fish.