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Fried Pigs’ Feet, Breaded

Breaded fried pig's feet soaked, boiled, coated in egg and crumbs, then fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fried Pigs’ Feet, Breaded

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak pigs’ feet in water for 3 hours if only brined.

  2. Boil until tender.

  3. Cover hot pigs’ feet with boiling vinegar mixed with sugar and peppercorns. Do this the day before cooking.

  4. Wipe each piece of pigs’ feet.

Bread and fry

  1. Roll each piece in beaten egg.

  2. Roll each piece in cracker crumbs.

  3. Fry in plenty of cleared dripping or lard until golden brown.

  4. Drain off excess fat.

Serve

  1. Serve hot.

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. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Vinegar and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 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 main meat; boiling makes them tender before frying.
Beaten egg
Binds the cracker crumbs to the surface of each piece.
Cracker crumbs
Form the crisp, golden coating when fried.
Cleared dripping or lard
Fries the coating, adding browning and crispness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that flavours the pigs’ feet during the overnight covering.

The step that matters

Fry in plenty of fat until golden brown. Frying in plenty of hot fat cooks the coating quickly and evenly, so it browns and crisps before the meat inside overheats. Too little fat or low heat leaves the coating greasy and pale.

“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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