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Pig's Feet and Ears Soused

Pickled pig's feet and ears, seasoned with salt, vinegar, mace, then breaded and fried or served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Pig's Feet and Ears Soused

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the pig's feet and ears, removing the skin.

  2. Boil them slowly until tender.

  3. Split the feet and place them with the ears in a mixture of salt and vinegar, flavored with mace.

Pickle and store

  1. Cover the jar tightly and store it away.

  2. If storing, prepare a fresh pickle every other day.

Serve

  1. When ready to use, dry each piece with a cloth.

  2. Dip each piece in beaten egg yolk, then coat with bread crumbs.

  3. Fry in butter or lard until nicely browned.

  4. Alternatively, serve cold directly from the 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Mace + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Mace and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,405 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
Gelatinous connective tissue that becomes tender with slow boiling and gives body to the dish.
Pig's ears
Cartilage and skin that soften with slow boiling, adding a firm, chewy texture.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the meat and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
Beaten egg yolk
Binds the bread crumbs to the pieces so the coating adheres during frying.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden coating when fried.
Butter or lard
Fat that conducts heat for frying and encourages browning and rich flavor.

The step that matters

Boil them slowly until tender. Slow simmering breaks down collagen into gelatin gently, so the feet and ears become tender without falling apart. Rapid boiling toughens the surface and can leave the connective tissue tough.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, bread, butter. 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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