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Pig-Pettitoes Soup

A soup of pig's feet and ears simmered with onions, savory herbs, and spices, thickened with flour or arrowroot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pig-Pettitoes Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Thoroughly clean the pig's feet and ears.

  2. In a large pot, combine the feet, ears, water, onions, and savory herbs.

  3. Skim the surface and simmer for 4 hours.

  4. Remove the ears and continue simmering the feet until tender.

  5. Strain the soup and let it settle overnight to separate fat and sediment.

  6. Dice the meat from the feet and ears.

Finish the soup

  1. Reheat the strained soup, removing fat and sediment.

  2. Season the soup with salt, cayenne, minced herbs, and white pepper.

  3. Thicken the soup with flour or arrowroot mixed with butter.

  4. Gradually heat the diced meat in some of the soup, then add it to the thickened soup.

  5. Simmer the entire mixture for a few minutes before serving.

  6. For a richer flavor, add Madeira, Harvey's sauce, or forcemeat balls 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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Pepper + white peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 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

Pig's feet
Give body and gelatin, so the strained broth becomes rich and slightly thick.
Pig's ears
Add gelatin and chewy texture to the soup.
Onions
Contribute savory sweetness and aroma to the long-simmered stock.
Flour or arrowroot with butter
Thickens the soup so it coats the spoon and the meat sits in it.

The step that matters

Removing fat and sediment before thickening. Fat and sediment left in the reheated soup make it greasy and cloudy. Settling overnight lets fat rise and solids sink, so it can be skimmed off cleanly before thickening.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, flour, sauce. 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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