Rillettes and Pate

I have often seen both rillettes and pate on French menus but I have always ( mistakenly !) thought they were two words for the same thing.

There is a man in his fifties in a neighbouring village who keeps ‘free range rabbits’.. well, these are rabbits that are kept in large moveable cages which are moved on a daily basis to give the rabbits a fresh patch of grass every day. He has a reputation for making excellent rillettes and pates. The rumour, yesterday, was that he had killed several rabbits and was in the process of making these delicacies. If you pass his house around 5.00pm I was told, he may have some for sale. Now is my chance.. but he lives down a track that only leads to his house.. so you can hardly ‘just pass his house’..

I need not have worried. When I arrived at 5.30pm there were 8 cars parked on the grass verges leading to his house. Feeling a little nervous, I followed another woman who had arrived just before me, into a small stone room which was attached to his house. This room was completely bare apart from a modernish refrigerated display unit with three earthenware pots inside and some scales. I left some 45 minutes later, with a small slice of rillettes and a medium slice of pate.

The difference between the two he told me is in the meat preparation. To make rillettes the rabbit is stewed slowly in the oven with a little pork for 5 or 6 hours and is then shredded by hand. In a true rillette you must be able to distinguish the shreds of meat. This is the crucial difference when comparing rillettes to pate.

Pate is prepared slightly differently in that the seasoned meat is ground to provide a much finer texture.

The only ingredients in my rillettes and pate are rabbit (90%), pork, salt and pepper. They both taste fantastic.. I will certainly be passing M. Durais house next time he is making rillettes and pate !!