Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fried Pigs' Feet
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Make a batter with flour, water, coarse sea salt, and the egg.
Fry and serve
Dip the pigs' feet into the batter to coat them.
Heat the fat until hot, then fry the feet until they are brown.
Prepare drawn butter and mix in a spoonful of vinegar to serve with the feet.
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.
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + vinegartop 27% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,652 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,922 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Flour
- Forms the base of the batter that coats the feet and crisps when fried.
- Egg
- Binds the batter so it clings to the feet and helps it set during frying.
- Fat for frying
- Conducts heat to the batter, cooking it and browning its surface.
The step that matters
Heat the fat until hot before frying. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil instead of crisping quickly, leaving the coating greasy and pale. A properly hot fat seals the batter fast, so it browns evenly and stays crisp.
“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.
More fried pig's feet recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.