Division 5.2 Specificity of the product

‘Rillettes de Tours’ are cooked in a pot, with the lid mostly off. The cooking process is long and traditionally consists of three stages: the initial browning of the meat (from 15 minutes to 1 hour at a temperature of between 95 °C and 115 °C), followed by a period of slow cooking (from 5,5 to 12 hours at a temperature of between 65 °C and 95 °C) and a final short period (10-20 minutes) at a high temperature (95-115 °C).

The initial browning of lean pieces of meat and the slow cooking with the lid off, which are specific to ‘Rillettes de Tours’, dry out the product and produce flavour substances which result from Maillard reactions, in particular, and are characteristic of the taste of browned meat.

The slow cooking of the pieces of meat in their own fat produces a confit. The pieces of meat fall apart solely as a result of the cooking process, without shredding or beating, leaving their long fibres intact.

The dry texture of ‘Rillettes de Tours’, developed originally to increase their shelf-life, is a result of the traditional manner in which they are cooked in an open pot with a large surface area for evaporation. The purpose of the final high-temperature stage has also always been to increase evaporation at the end of the cooking process.