Tonight we are having pork rillettes: chunks of pork, slow cooked in lard, seasoned, and shredded. They are divine!
The recipe I am using is an adaptation of one found in my favorite cookbook, The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. In Hugh’s recipe, he uses 1lb of pork shoulder and 1lb of pork belly; however I am using a 3 pound pork shoulder and no belly.
This shoulder is from my friends at Coon Rock Farm. Coon Rock Farm raises Berkshire pigs, a heritage breed that is wonderfully marbled and flavored.
Cut up the shoulder into finger-sized pieces and put into a large pot along with 1 lb of lard or bacon drippings. 
Add about 1 cup water, 1 tbsp thyme, 3 bay leaves, a pinch of cinnamon, salt, and pepper and cook over low heat (barely bubbling and not boiling) for 3 or 4 hours.
The meat should be very tender. Remove the meat from the liquid and shred it using 2 forks. Adjust the seasonings to taste.
Place the shredded meat into a bowl, cover and refrigerate. Serve the chilled meat over crusty bread, or in our case, parmesan crisps, and include something acidic like sour pickles to cut the fat.
Enjoy.
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This looks great.
BTW, what do you do with the lard after cooking? Wouldn’t want to discard it but if it has water and stuff in it, it couldn’t be used for say frying.
Hey Sean. I definitey save the lard but it does need to be filtered. There isn’t a problem with water as it has all boiled off; however there are usually small pieces of meat and some scum left in the pot. You can use a piece of cheese cloth or a finely meshed colander to do the filtering.
Aha, makes sense. Don’t want to toss all that nice lard. I made something similar, carnitas, threw in a bunch of orange peels but my wife thought it was too oily, ha ha. I will definitely try this recipe.