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Pig's Febt and Ears Soused

A preserved dish of pig's feet and ears soaked in salt, vinegar, and mace, then fried after coating with egg yolk and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Pig's Febt and Ears Soused

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and pickle

  1. Clean the pig's feet and ears, and remove the skin.

  2. Boil them slowly until tender.

  3. Split the feet and place them with the ears in a mixture of salt and vinegar, flavored with mace.

  4. Cover the jar tightly and store it away.

Cook and serve

  1. When ready to use, dry each piece with a cloth.

  2. Dip each piece first in beaten egg yolk, then in bread crumbs.

  3. Fry them in batter or lard until nicely cooked.

  4. Alternatively, serve them cold directly from the vinegar.

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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Mace + breadtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,005 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Vinegar + breadtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,672 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes
  5. 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

Pig's feet
Gelatinous connective tissue that softens during slow boiling and gives body to the dish.
Pig's ears
Cartilage and collagen that soften with long cooking and add a firm, chewy texture.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the pieces in the brine and gives a sour flavor.
Beaten egg yolk
Binding layer that helps bread crumbs adhere to each piece before frying.
Bread crumbs
Coating that forms a crisp, browned crust when fried.

The step that matters

Drying each piece before coating. Surface moisture keeps the egg yolk and crumbs from adhering evenly and can cause spattering and a soggy crust in hot fat.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, bread. 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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