Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
To Souse a Pig's Head
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the head
Cut open the pig's head and remove the brains and tongue.
Cut off the ears close to the head and clean them well.
Salt the ears and head with coarse sea salt and let them sit for 3-4 days.
Boil the head and ears until tender, so the bones slip out easily.
Press and pickle
Prepare a cloth in an earthen pot.
Layer half the head with skin side down, then add an ear, the peeled tongue, the other ear, and the other half of the head with skin side up.
Sprinkle salt between each layer while hot.
Press down with a board and weight; let it sit overnight.
Remove from the pot and take off the cloth.
If storing, make a pickle with the boiling liquid and vinegar or boiled bran and water.
Submerge the head when cold.
Fry and serve
Slice the head (not too thin).
Dust with flour.
Fry until heated through.
Combine vinegar, powdered sugar to taste, and prepared mustard in a saucepan.
Boil and serve in a sauce-tureen.
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.
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Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,066 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Sugar + mustardtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,424 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out and preserves the meat during curing.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the pickle.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar sauce.
- Prepared mustard
- Adds pungent flavour to the sauce.
- Flour
- Dusting forms a light coating that helps the slices brown when fried.
The step that matters
Salting and pressing the layers. Salt must be spread evenly between the layers while hot and the pressed weight kept on overnight. Uneven salting or too little pressure lets the meat spoil or stay loose and crumbly, so the pickle won't set firmly.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, flour):
- Mustardthe original
- Arrowrootfits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Beetrootfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, 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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