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Dessert

Pork Cake

A sweet cake made with salt pork, molasses, sugar, coffee, raisins, currants, spices, nutmeg, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Pork Cake

Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓

Pork Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Soak the salt pork in water overnight, then drain and chop finely.

Mix and bake

  1. In a large bowl, mix the black molasses, sugar, and hot coffee until combined.

  2. Add the chopped salt pork, raisins, currants, baking soda, mixed spices, and grated nutmeg to the mixture.

  3. Gradually stir in the flour until a thick batter forms.

  4. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  5. Bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

  5. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 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

Black molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep sweetness to the batter.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the thick batter as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to lift the batter as it bakes.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.
Salt pork
Adds richness and fat, contributing savoriness and moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the flour. Adding flour gradually and mixing only until a thick batter forms keeps the batter smooth and prevents lumps, while avoiding overmixing that can toughen the crumb.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, molasses, sugar, coffee, raisin, nutmeg, 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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