Name: A Dish of Pigs' Feet and Ears
Ingredients: pigs' feet; pigs' ears; bran; coarse sea salt; water; egg yolk; grated bread; gravy; burnt butter

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

A Dish of Pigs' Feet and Ears

Ingredients

Directions

Make a strong pickle by boiling bran and coarse sea salt in water.
Let the pickle cool, then add the pigs' feet and ears. Soak for 7 to 10 days, changing the liquid if kept longer.
When ready to use, shred the ears and toss them in a thick gravy made with burnt butter and season to taste.
Split the feet, dip them in egg yolk, roll in grated bread, and broil them.
Arrange the broiled feet around the dish.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).