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Dessert

Fruit Pork Cake

A baked fruit cake containing minced pork, dried fruits, spices, and molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fruit Pork Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Pour boiling water over the minced pork and let it sit.

  2. In a large bowl, mix together the brown sugar, molasses, flour, and dissolved baking soda.

  3. Add the currants, dates, raisins, cloves, citron, allspice, cinnamon, cherry wine, and nutmeg to the mixture. Stir until well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 4 hours.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Fat pork
Adds richness and moisture as it melts into the cake during the long bake.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the dense batter together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to help the cake rise and darken.
Dates
Add moisture and natural sweetness, keeping the cake soft.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in hot water. Baking soda must be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly with the acidic molasses. Undissolved pockets can leave bitter spots and uneven rising.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, sugar, molasses, flour, dates, raisin, clove):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sugar, molasses, flour, dates, raisin, clove. 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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