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Pig's Head and Feet, Soused

A preserved dish of pig's head and feet simmered in a vinegar, lime, and pepper sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lime and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,491 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pig's Head and Feet, Soused

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the pig's head and feet thoroughly.

  2. Boil the head and feet in water until tender.

Make the sour sauce and cook

  1. In a bowl, mix part of the cooking liquid with vinegar, lime or lemon juice, salt, cayenne, and black pepper.

  2. Add the head and feet to the sauce, either whole or cut down.

  3. Boil everything together for 1 hour.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into a deep dish and let it cool.

  2. Serve cold with mustard and vinegar.

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. Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + limetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,044 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

Pig's head
Provides the main body of meat and gelatin-rich connective tissue that sets the dish as it cools.
Pig's feet
Add gelatin from connective tissue, helping the mixture firm up when chilled.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that gives the dish its sour flavour and helps preserve it.
Lime or lemon juice
Adds bright citrus acidity that supports the sour flavour of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Boil everything together for 1 hour. Boiling long enough softens the connective tissue so it releases gelatin, which is needed for the dish to set when cooled. Too short a time leaves it tough and 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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