The first item on my shopping list whenever I’m in the Loire valley is a pot of rillettes. Always plural in French, it’s usually found at the charcuterie counter, next to the paté. But take care not to commit the ultimate faux-pas.

“No, no, it’s not paté,” says local butcher Emmanuel Ligneul, sounding offended. “It’s the best chunks of pork, shoulder and leg, cut into small pieces and cooked in their own fat in a large vat. You can’t use cheap cuts, and the meat isn’t minced or processed, just pulled and pressed.”

Rillettes, a delicacy in the central Loire region, is traditionally made in an area between Le Mans, the city known for its 24-hour car race, and Tours, 90km to the south. It’s sold in small tubs or in slices by weight, and the basic recipe is straightforward: meat cooked slowly for up to 10 hours until the fibre softens and breaks up. But there are local variations. Some charcutiers add herbs, such as thyme or marjoram, local wine or cognac. Rillettes made in the Tours area is darker, the meat in strips rather than diced, and contains a little more fat than that made around Le Mans.

Rillettes has literary credentials, too. Novelist Honoré de Balzac mentions them in his 1835 novel Le Lys dans la Vallée, a set text in all French schools.

Today, rillettes production is big business. In 2013, producers of Rillettes de Tours secured EU protected geographical indication status for their product. Producers further north have been trying to obtain the same protection for Rillettes du Mans for 20 years. The Paris-based Institut National d’Origine agreed to back their case in Brussels a couple of years ago. An answer is eagerly awaited.