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Pig’s Feet and Ears Fricasseed

A fricassee of pig's feet and ears simmered in veal broth, finished with cream, flour, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Pig’s Feet and Ears Fricasseed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the pig's feet in half and slice the ears.

Boil and simmer

  1. Cut the feet and ears into neat pieces and boil them in milk.

  2. Drain the milk and simmer the pieces in veal broth with onion, mace, and lemon peel.

Finish and serve

  1. Before serving, add cream, flour, butter, and salt.

Variations

  1. Fry them and serve with butter, mustard, and vinegar.

  2. For a cream dressing, do not add vinegar to the pickle.

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  4. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Pig's feet
Connective tissue breaks down into gelatin, giving body and a silky texture.
Pig's ears
Connective tissue breaks down into gelatin, adding body and a tender, silky texture.
Veal broth
Liquid that simmers the meat and carries savory flavor into the dish.
Cream
Adds richness, fat, and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished dish.
Flour
Starch thickens the cooking liquid into a light, cohesive sauce.

The step that matters

Add cream and flour before serving. Flour must be heated in the liquid to thicken it fully, while cream can separate or turn grainy if it boils hard. Adding both near the end and keeping the heat gentle helps keep the sauce smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, veal, onion, lemon, cream, flour):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, veal, onion, lemon, cream, flour. 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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