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To Make Souse

Souse is a preserved meat made by soaking, boiling, seasoning, and storing in a vinegar mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Make Souse

Ingredients

Directions

Clean the meat

  1. Soak the meat pieces in cold water for 12 hours, changing the water frequently.

  2. Wash the pieces. Wipe off the blood.

  3. Soak them again in fresh water until the blood is drawn out.

  4. Scrape each piece. Clean each piece thoroughly.

Cook and roll

  1. Mix meal with water and salt.

  2. Boil the meat gently until tender.

  3. Boil feet, ears, and heads separately until bones can be removed.

  4. Let the meat cool.

  5. Season the insides with pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

  6. Roll the meat tightly.

  7. Sew the meat in cloth.

Pickle and store

  1. Mix more meal with cold water.

  2. Add salt and ¼ cup vinegar.

  3. Ensure the souse is cold before adding to the liquid.

  4. Cover the souse in this mixture.

  5. Store in tightly sealed pots.

  6. Renew the liquid every 2-3 weeks.

  7. Use pale vinegar for best color.

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 + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Meat + nutmegtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,656 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Nutmeg + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,864 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

Meat pieces (feet, ears, nose, heads)
Form the body of the souse; long soaking and boiling make them tender enough to roll.
Meal (cornmeal or similar)
Thickens the cooking water and the pickling liquid, giving the souse body and a mild flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the meat and gives the pickling liquid its sharp flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat and helps preserve it by drawing out moisture.

The step that matters

Ensure the souse is cold before adding to the liquid. Adding warm meat to the pickling liquid can raise its temperature and let spoilage bacteria grow, while cooling first keeps the liquid stable and the texture firm.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pepper, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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