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Soused Feet

Soused pig's feet are boiled, seasoned, and cooled with 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 pigs' feet thoroughly.

Cook

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

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

Season and soak

  1. Season with Cayenne pepper and salt.

  2. Once cooled, pour cold vinegar over the 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 meat and gelatinous connective tissue that becomes tender when simmered.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the soused flavor and helps preserve the cooked meat.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the meat during boiling and again before soaking.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat that gives the feet a sharp, spicy flavor.

The step that matters

Boil until tender. Pigs' feet are rich in collagen, which only breaks down into tender gelatin after long, gentle simmering. Stopping early leaves the meat tough and chewy, so cook until a fork slides in easily.

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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