Title: Pulled Pork and Sage Spread
Categories: Southern Appetizer Pork Herb Spread
Yield: 1 1/2 pints

3	lb	Pork from the back, loin, or
		Ribs
1/2	lb	Salt fatback, trimmed of
		Rind and well rinsed
6		Chopped garlic cloves
1	ts	Or 2, sage
1	ts	Or 2, thyme
		Salt
		Freshly ground black pepper

Cut the pork into finger length strips and the fatback into 1/4-inch cubes. Place the fatback in a large pan. Cook over low heat until it renders some fat. Add the pork and enough water to cover the meat -- about 1 cup. Partly cover the pan and cook over low heat for 45 minutes, without browning, stirring from time to time. Chaeck to be sure there is enough water in the pan to prevent the pork from drying out and browning. When done, the meat should look white and be tender. Remove to a cutting board, saving the liquid and fat, and with two forks pull the meat into shreds, or shred in a food processor. Place in a bowl, taste for seasoning, and add most of the reserved liquid and fat to moisten and flavor. Mix in half the garlic, the sage, thyme, salt and pepper. Taste again and add the rest of the garlic if desired. Place in pretty jars or pots, without packing too tightly. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze.

There is a traditional French technique of pulling or shredding meat with two forks resulting in a kind of minced meat that is called rillettes. In France, as in the South, the long cooking of the meat with salted fat is a method of preserving and tenderizing. Some call this spread potted pork and it's cooked unattended nearly an hour or more, with most of the actual preparation time spent in cutting the meat to start and pulling or shredding at the end. It keeps for a week or so in the refrigerator and freezes well. Serve with crusty bread and little sour pickles.

1 DUPREE, Nathalie New Southern Cooking Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. MM Format by John Hartman Indianapolis, IN

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