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Fried Pigs' Feet, Breaded

Breaded fried pig's feet that are boiled, marinated, coated in egg and cracker crumbs, and 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 the pig's feet for 3 hours if they are only brined.

  2. Boil the pig's feet until tender.

  3. Cover the feet with boiling vinegar mixed with sugar and peppercorns, doing this the day before cooking.

Bread and fry

  1. Wipe each piece before frying.

  2. Roll each piece in beaten egg, then in cracker crumbs.

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

  4. Drain off the fat and 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 meat, which becomes tender through boiling and is the main component of the dish.
Boiling vinegar
Acidity that flavours and helps preserve the pickled feet.
Beaten egg
Binds the cracker crumbs so they stick to the feet during frying.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot fat.
Cleared dripping or lard
Fries the coating, conducting heat to crisp and brown the crumbs.

The step that matters

Fry in plenty of hot fat. Using enough fat keeps the coating in contact with hot oil so it browns and crisps quickly. Too little fat or low heat lets the crumbs absorb grease and turn soggy instead of golden.

“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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