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Pickled Pigs Feet

Pickled pig feet preserved in a vinegar and spice brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Pickled Pigs Feet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cook Sinclair's Dressed Pigs Feet as for frying.

  2. Remove from stove and place in a stone jar.

Pickle

  1. Boil vinegar, peppercorns, and cloves together for 5 minutes.

  2. Pour the hot mixture over the pigs feet.

  3. Cover with a plate to keep them submerged in the vinegar.

  4. They will be ready the next day and will keep for some time.

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 + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  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

Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and flavours the pigs feet as they pickle.
Sinclair's dressed pigs feet
The main ingredient, cooked first and then pickled in the vinegar mixture.

The step that matters

Keep the pigs feet fully submerged in the vinegar. Any meat left above the liquid is exposed to air and can spoil or dry out. A plate on top holds the pieces under the hot vinegar so the whole surface is covered while it pickles.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper. 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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