Name: Pork Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 4 tablespoons sugar; 2 teaspoons ground cloves; 1 cup finely chopped pork; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1 cup hot water; 1 cup raisins

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Pork Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Chop the pork finely.
Seed the raisins.

Mix and bake

Mix molasses, baking soda, sugar, cloves, pork, cinnamon, hot water, and raisins together.
Pour the mixture into a baking pan.
Bake for 40 minutes in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C).

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Clove + raisintop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,070 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Molasses: Adds dark sweetness, moisture and a deep flavor to the cake.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Pork: Provides the meaty body and savory richness that the recipe is built around.
Raisins: Add chewy bits of concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

Swap the raisin

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

Raisinthe original
Vanillafits about as well
Applefits about as well
Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, clove, pork, cinnamon. 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.