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Pigs Feet Sauce

A sauce made by boiling pig's feet with water, salt, pepper, cider vinegar, and thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Pigs Feet Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the feet

  1. Remove the horny parts of the feet and toes, then scrape, clean, and wash them thoroughly.

  2. Singe off any hairs if needed.

  3. Place the cleaned feet in a kettle with plenty of water and boil.

  4. Skim off any impurities, pour off the water, and add fresh water.

  5. Boil until the bones pull out easily.

Pack and preserve

  1. Do not bone the feet; instead, pack them in a stone jar with pepper and salt sprinkled between each layer.

  2. Mix two-thirds cider vinegar with one-third of the boiling liquor and fill the jar with this mixture.

  3. If the feet are perfectly tender, remove the bones and pack them in a stone jar as before.

  4. Slice cold when needed.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. When ready to serve, take out a sufficient quantity and place it in a hot skillet.

  2. Add more vinegar, salt, and pepper if needed.

  3. Boil until thoroughly heated, then stir in a smooth mixture of flour and water.

  4. Continue boiling until the flour is cooked.

  5. Serve hot as a breakfast 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.

  1. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + cidertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,234 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + flourtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,652 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Pigs feet
Provide gelatinous bones and connective tissue that give the sauce body and a jelly-like set when cold.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the feet in the jar.
Flour
Thickens the boiling liquid into a smooth sauce as its starch gelatinises.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour and water mixture. Flour must be stirred in smooth and the sauce kept boiling long enough for its starch to cook; otherwise it stays lumpy and tastes raw.

“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.

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