Name: Boiling and Packing Pigs’ Feet
Ingredients: Pigs' feet; Cider vinegar; Salt; Whole pepper; Spices to taste

Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Boiling and Packing Pigs’ Feet

Ingredients

Directions

Boil pig's feet until the meat and bone do not begin to separate.
Split the feet lengthwise.
Pack the split feet in boiling cider vinegar.
Add enough salt, whole pepper, and spices to suit your taste.
Keep the packed feet well covered.

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.

Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cider + peppertop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,234 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pigs' feet: Provide the main meat, skin and gelatinous body of the dish.
Cider vinegar: Acts as the pickling liquid, adding sourness and helping preserve the meat.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.