Travel France from your kitchen: Rillons recipe
If you've ever had even the slightest nostalgia for pork scratchings, this recipe hailing from the Pays de la Loire region is for you
French recipes for grattons (ie scratchings) date back to the Middle Ages and can be made of goose, chicken, or duck as well as pork. This recipe uses pork and white wine to make rillons - a favourite finger food in the Pays de la Loire - which can be served with bread and cornichons (gerkins) as an apéro snack, or with salad as a main course.
Serves 2-3
Ingredients
1 kilo fat bacon (lard in French) Look for whole pieces which you can cut into large chunks (keep the rind on)
250g lard
1 litre of white wine
1 soup spoon of caramel
salt
Method
Chop the fat bacon into chunks about 2cm square, and fry them in a quarter of the lard (saindoux in French).
When they are golden, add the rest of the lard and the wine, bring to the boil, then turn down the heat, cover, and leave to simmer for two hours.
At the end, turn the heat up, add the caramel and coat the rillons with it. Serve with crusty bread.
Garnish with chives or spring onions
More recipes
You can see all of the recipes in our 'Travel France from your kitchen' series in our Food and Drink section. We finish tomorrow in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur with a flavourful fish stew and dreaming of sunset meals with an ocean view next summer.
