Cretons (Quebecois pork spread)
This is a recipe for a delicious French-Canadian pork spread, delicious served with toast or crackers. It makes a lovely starter or canape, but is just as nice in a packed lunch. This is also sometimes called gorton or corton.
Ingredients
Serves: 40
- 900g finely minced pork fat
- 900g finely minced pork
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 950ml water
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- salt and black pepper to taste
Method
Prep:10min ›
Cook:1hr30min ›
Ready in:1hr40min
- Stir the pork fat, minced pork, onions, water, cloves and nutmeg together in a large pot. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until the pork is tender, at least 1 1/2 hours. Use a potato masher to mash the pork mixture every 15 minutes as it cooks.
- The longer you simmer the cretons, the better the flavour will be. Add water as needed to keep the mixture from boiling dry. When you're ready to stop cooking, let the liquid reduce as much as possible without letting it burn. Refrigerate the cretons overnight. Remove and discard the fat layer, or stir it into the meat for a creamier spread.
Pork fat
Ask a good butcher for minced pork fat.
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Reviews & ratings
Average global rating:
(24)
Reviews in English (22)
It may be "creton" in some areas, but our 83 year old french canadian grandmother has always called it "gorton" ( cahh-ton... and she adds an s at the end) - 27 Nov 2010 (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)
Yes in New England we call it gorton. My pepere was French Canadian and my memere made this every Christmas in large batches, put them into tupperware containers and gave them away as gifts. Everyone loved her gorton. In my mind it is not Christmas without it! This is almost exactly like her recipe except she used allspice instead of the cloves and nutmeg. - 23 Dec 2011 (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)
My mom made this when I was growing up in Maine. She died when I was 22 (I'm 65 now) and had never written her recipes down. I just discovered this recipe yesterday watching an episode of Drive Ins, Diners and Dives and am making it right this minute. I hope it's just like hers - it sure smells like it. Wow - this is really something... I could just cry. We just ate in on toast and it was wonderful. Over the years, I thought it was "head cheese" and was put off by it so I never bothered to look it up on the internet. I am so grateful to have found it. Can't wait to try it. - 03 Sep 2012 (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)