Why it works: Vinegar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,652 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
To Cure Pig's Feet for Souse
Ingredients
Directions
Scrape the pig's feet clean by dipping them in hot lye to remove hair and hoofs.
Dip the feet in heated whitewash and scrape off immediately with a knife.
Wash the feet in two changes of water, then soak them in clean cold water overnight.
Change the water again, wash the feet well on the third day, and then boil them.
Prepare a pickle with strong salt, water, meal, and a little vinegar; bring it to a boil.
Once the pickle is cold, pour it over the cooled pig's feet.
Store the feet in the pickle to keep them sweet for weeks.
Serve cold, or cut in half, sprinkle with flour, and fry in boiling lard.
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.
-
Vinegar + flourtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,652 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.