Cretons

As tradition built it

Cretons

Makes 6 servings. About 1 hour.

Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 45 ml olive oil
• 450 g lean ground pork
• roughly half a cup dry breadcrumbs
• 250 ml chicken broth
• 75 ml 35% cream
• 2.5 ml ground cinnamon
• 2.5 ml ground cloves
• to taste salt and pepper

Method

1. Sauté 1 chopped onion and 2 chopped garlic cloves in 45 ml olive oil.
2. Add 450 g lean ground pork, roughly half a cup of dry breadcrumbs, 250 ml chicken broth, 75 ml 35% cream, 2.5 ml ground cinnamon and 2.5 ml ground cloves, salt and pepper.
3. Simmer together for one hour, stirring occasionally, until the liquid fully evaporates and the mixture turns thick, spreadable and faintly grainy.
4. Pot into glass jars while warm and refrigerate. Yields six servings.

Notes

Cretons were historically a method of preserving pork through winter after the autumn slaughter, appearing in Quebec recipe books from the mid-nineteenth century, and are distinguished from French rillettes by using ground rather than shredded pork and, traditionally, a much higher fat content built for keeping rather than for delicacy.

What a modern chef changes

Sous vide render, fresh-ground spice, chinois-fined spread

Method

1. Cook the pork sous vide first at a low, precise temperature, rendering its own fat cleanly and evenly before it ever meets the pan, then finish the mixture in a wide pan only to reduce the broth and cream, a two-stage version of a technique tradition already does in one pot but with none of the risk of the base catching before the hour is up.
2. Grind the cinnamon and cloves fresh in the spice grinder immediately before use rather than from a jar, for a genuinely sharper top note against the pork's own richness.
3. Pass the finished mixture briefly through the chinois while still warm for an even finer, more uniform spreadable texture, then chill it in a shallow tray rather than a jar for a cleaner slice.