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Soused Feet

Soused Feet are pig's feet boiled, seasoned, and then pickled in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Soused Feet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scrape and clean the pig's feet thoroughly.

  2. Boil the feet in a pot with salt and water until the meat is tender.

  3. Remove the large bones and cut each foot into four pieces.

Season and sous

  1. Season the pieces with Cayenne pepper and salt.

  2. Pour cold vinegar over the seasoned feet.

  3. Add grains of allspice and sprigs of mace if desired.

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 + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

Pigs' feet
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through long boiling and firms as it cools.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that flavours the meat and helps preserve it in the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Boil the feet until the meat is tender. Collagen-rich connective tissue only softens into gelatin after prolonged simmering. Stopping early leaves the meat tough and chewy, and the pieces will not turn tender later when marinated in cold vinegar.

Swap the allspice

The recipe marks allspice as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar, mace):

  1. Allspicethe original
  2. Clovefits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, mace. 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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