Name: Sousk for Brawn, and for Pig S Feet and Ears
Ingredients: ¼ peck wheat bran (about 9 cups); 1 sprig bay; 1 sprig rosemary; 2 gallons water; 4 ounces coarse sea salt

Why it works: Wheat and rosemary share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 44 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Sousk for Brawn, and for Pig S Feet and Ears

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the wheat bran, bay, rosemary, and salt in the water for 30 minutes.
Strain the mixture and let it cool.

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.

Wheat + rosemarytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together44 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Wheat Gruel6 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

Mutton Broth292 recipes

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Sousk for Brawn, and for Pig S Feet and Ears