A few folks asked about how I made the rillettes that I shared for lunch at our Big Pig Day, and I just happen to have a photo series of the process, so I thought I'd post it. 

 

The short version is that I pulled four chops from the freezer and put together a salt/spice rub (I think basically using the recipe from the Ruhlman/Polcyn book) and left the chops in the spice cure for about two days in the fridge.  Then, I rendered about 5 lbs of back fat on the stovetop and strained and jarred it.  Then, rinsed the chops, melted the lard, and poured the lard over the chops into a casserole pan, and baked at maybe 250-300 for about 4 hours.  Then, skimmed the yummy garbage off the top, strained the fat and reserved for another event, and started hand shredding the meat, discarding excess fat, gristle, bone, etc.  Then, put the meat in the stand mixer with some excess melted lard, confit juices, and black pepper, and mixed it with the paddle attachment for a minute or more.  Then, jammed it in some canning jars and capped them with more lard.  That's it! 

 

Turned out pretty well I think, but if I did it again, I'd try to make it a little less salty and would not keep it in the stand mixer as long as I did, so it didn't look so much like cat food!

Update: I took a bunch of the rillettes, piped them onto a ribbon of homemade pasta, and made some small ravioli, finished with a sage brown butter sauce -- fantastic!  Heating up the rillette inside the ravioli liquified the fat, making them burst with flavor and juicyness. [note: we made two types of ravioli -- the larger ones were chard/ricotta/lemon zest]