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Pigs' Foot Jelly

A gelatinous dish made by boiling pig's feet, separating meat, and setting the broth with the meat into molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pigs' Foot Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the feet

  1. Thoroughly singe, scrape, and wash the pig's feet.

  2. Place the feet in a kettle and boil until the meat separates from the bones.

Make the jelly

  1. Remove the meat and bones from the kettle, leaving the liquid.

  2. Separate the bones from the meat and chop the meat finely.

  3. Return the chopped meat to the liquid, season with pepper, salt, and vinegar if desired.

  4. Pour the mixture into molds and refrigerate overnight.

  5. Remove the fat that rises to the top before serving.

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pig's feet
Provide meat, skin and connective tissue that release gelatin into the cooking liquid, which sets the jelly.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into molds and refrigerate overnight. The jelly sets only when the gelatin released from the bones and connective tissue cools and firms. It needs enough time to chill fully, so pouring into molds too early or skipping the overnight chill can leave it loose.

“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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