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Pickled Pigs Feet

Pickled pig feet are boiled, seasoned with vinegar, peppers, celery seed, mustard, and salt, then cooled and served.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Pickled Pigs Feet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the feet

  1. Singe the pig feet well.

  2. Pour boiling water over them with baking soda dissolved in it and let stand until cool.

  3. Scrape the feet well with a sharp knife.

Cook and pickle

  1. Rinse and cook in boiling salted water until very tender, leaving at least 1 quart of broth.

  2. Drain off the broth and let it cool.

  3. Remove the fat from the top and reheat the broth.

  4. Add enough strong vinegar to make it tart, along with red peppers, celery seed, and mustard.

  5. Pour the mixture over the feet and let stand until well seasoned.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pigs feet
Main protein; cooking until very tender turns its connective tissue soft and gelatinous.
Strong vinegar
Adds the tartness that defines the pickle and helps preserve the feet.
Baking soda
Dissolved in boiling water to help loosen the skin and hair before scraping.
Red peppers
Contribute heat and aroma to the pickling liquid.
Celery seed
Adds a warm, savory aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Cooking until very tender. Pig feet are rich in collagen, which must cook long enough to break down into gelatin; undercooked feet stay tough and chewy. Leaving the broth at a simmer in salted water keeps the meat moist as it softens.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, mustard. 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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