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Pickled Souse

Pickled pork feet preserved in a vinegar brine with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Pickled Souse

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 stray hairs.

  3. Place the feet in a kettle with plenty of water and boil them, skimming off any foam.

  4. Pour off the water, add fresh water, and boil until the bones pull out easily.

Pack and pickle

  1. Pack the feet in a stone jar, sprinkling coarse sea salt and black pepper between each layer.

  2. Mix 2 parts cider vinegar with 1 part of the boiling liquid and pour it over the packed feet to cover.

  3. Store in a cool place and take out as needed.

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. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pork + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Pepper + cidertop 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

Pork feet
Main ingredient; boiling softens the connective tissue and bones until they pull out easily.
Cider vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the feet and gives the pickled flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling until the bones pull out easily. Boiling must run long enough to break down the collagen in the connective tissue and bones. If it is stopped early, the feet stay tough and the bones do not release cleanly.

“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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