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Pigs' Feet, Soused

Soused pigs' feet are boiled, seasoned, and cured in vinegar for 24 hours, then served cold or warmed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Pigs' Feet, Soused

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the feet

  1. Wash the pigs' feet in cold water and place them in a kettle with enough cold water to cover them.

  2. Bring to a boil, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface.

  3. Replenish with boiling water as needed.

  4. Cook for four hours or until very tender.

  5. Remove the feet, split them open between the hoofs, and take out the large bones.

Souse and serve

  1. In a large stone crock, layer the pigs' feet cut side up, sprinkling each layer with salt, pepper, and cloves.

  2. Fill the crock with cider vinegar and cover it tightly.

  3. Let sit for twenty-four hours before serving.

  4. They can be eaten cold or warm.

  5. To serve warm, heat in a skillet with some of the congealed vinegar and cloves.

  6. If too sour, add a little water and adjust salt 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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

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

  4. Clove + cidertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,683 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 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

Pigs' feet
Long cooking turns the connective tissue tender and gelatinous, giving the body to the finished dish.
Cider vinegar
Acidity penetrates the cooked meat, sharpening its flavor and acting as the pickling medium.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat through the layers and helps draw flavor into the feet during the soak.
Ground cloves
Adds warm aromatic flavor that infuses the vinegar and the meat during the soak.

The step that matters

Cook until very tender. Pigs' feet are rich in collagen that only breaks down into tender, gelatinous meat with long, gentle cooking. Stopping early leaves the meat tough and chewy, and the vinegar soak cannot fix that texture.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Allspicefits about as well
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cider, 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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