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Soused Pig's Feet, or Pig's Pettitoes

A preserved pig's feet dish simmered, then cooled and stored in a vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Soused Pig's Feet, or Pig's Pettitoes

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the feet

  1. Cover the pigs' feet with cold water.

  2. Bring the covered pigs' feet to a boil.

  3. Cook gently until tender enough to easily remove the bones.

  4. Remove the feet.

  5. Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt over them.

  6. Place the feet in a crock after they have cooled.

Pickle

  1. Skim the cooking liquid when cold.

  2. Add 1 quart of vinegar to the liquid.

  3. Boil the mixture with whole peppercorns, cloves, and allspice for a few minutes.

  4. Pour the boiling liquid over the feet, ensuring they are fully covered.

  5. Cover the crock.

  6. Store the crock in a cool place.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Vinegar + clovetop 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
Provide the meat and gelatin-rich body of the dish, which softens during slow cooking.
Vinegar
Acidifies the cooking liquid, preserving the meat and giving the dish its sharp, tangy flavour.
Whole black peppercorns
Add a warm, pungent aroma to the pickling liquid.
Whole cloves
Contribute a strong, sweet-spicy aroma to the pickling liquid.
Whole allspice
Adds a warm, mildly sweet aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Cook gently until tender. Simmering gently rather than boiling hard keeps the meat from breaking apart while collagen slowly converts to gelatin, so the bones release easily and the feet stay intact for pickling.

“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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