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A hearty soup made from pigs' feet and ears, simmered with vegetables, herbs, and rice flour, finished with lemon, Harvey's sauce, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Skim the water when it first boils.

  2. Add salt, onions, celery, herbs, carrots, peppercorns, and mace.

  3. Stew gently until the pigs' feet and ears are tender.

  4. Remove the feet and ears.

  5. Keep the liquid simmering while you bone them.

  6. Return the bones to the liquid.

  7. Stew for 1 hour.

  8. Strain the soup into a clean pan.

  9. Let it cool overnight.

  10. Cover it with a cloth.

  11. Clear the stock from fat.

  12. Clear the stock from sediment.

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut the meat into dice while warm.

Finish the soup

  1. Bring the stock to a boil.

  2. Stir in the rice flour mixed with cayenne, mace, and salt.

  3. Add lemon juice, Harvey's sauce, and sherry or Madeira.

  4. Simmer for 6-8 minutes.

  5. Adjust seasoning if needed.

  6. Stir often.

  7. Skim thoroughly.

  8. Add the meat and herbs.

  9. Boil gently for 5 minutes.

  10. Serve quickly.

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 + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pigs' feet
Release gelatin and body into the stock as they stew until tender.
Pigs' ears
Add gelatin and a firm, chewy texture to the meat cooked in the soup.
Rice flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth body once stirred in and simmered.
Harvey's sauce
Adds savoury, tangy depth to the finished soup.
Sherry or madeira
Adds aroma and a mellow sweetness to the finished soup.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich stock.

The step that matters

Clear the stock from fat and sediment. Rich stock from pigs' feet holds a lot of fat and particles. Chilling overnight lets fat solidify on top so it can be lifted off, and removing sediment keeps the soup clear and smooth before thickening.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, celery, carrot, rice, flour, pepper, lemon):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, celery, carrot, rice, flour, pepper, lemon. 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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