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Pig's Feet, Soused

A dish of boiled pig's feet pickled in vinegar and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and pepper 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 ↓

Pig's Feet, Soused

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the feet

  1. Scald and scrape the pig's feet.

  2. Place the feet in a stewpan and cover with lukewarm water.

  3. Bring to a boil, skim carefully, then simmer gently until the bones can be removed.

  4. Lift the feet out and sprinkle salt over them.

  5. Remove the fat from the top of the liquid as it cools.

Pickle and serve

  1. Once clear, boil 1 quart of the liquid with 1 quart of vinegar, 2 teaspoons of whole pepper, and 1 blade of mace for 10 minutes.

  2. Pour the boiling mixture over the feet in a deep pan and cover tightly.

  3. Serve the meat cold from the vinegar or fry and brown it to serve hot.

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

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

  2. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pig's feet
Provide the meat and gelatinous body that sets richly once cooled.
Vinegar
Acidifies the pickling liquid, preserving the meat and giving it a sharp tang.
Whole pepper
Adds warm, aromatic spice to the pickling liquid.
Mace
Contributes a delicate, warm aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Skimming the simmering liquid. Skimming removes foam and impurities that would cloud the broth. Removing fat as it cools keeps the liquid clear and the pickled meat clean-tasting.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper. 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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