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Dessert

Pork Fruit Cake

A sweet cake made with egg, sugar, molasses, salt pork, sour milk, spices, raisins, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 Fruit 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. In a large bowl, mix the egg, sugar, molasses, and sour milk until well combined.

  3. Stir in the finely chopped salt pork.

Make the batter

  1. In a separate bowl, combine the baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and flour.

  2. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until just combined.

  3. Fold in the seeded raisins.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 45-50 minutes, 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.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Flour
Builds the cake's structure as its gluten and starches set during baking.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps set the crumb as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to release gas that lifts the cake.
Sour milk
Adds moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda and tenderizes the crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and deep color and flavor to the cake.
Salt pork
Adds fat and richness, keeping the cake moist and savory-spiced.

The step that matters

Mixing the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Stir only until just combined. Overmixing develops too much gluten in the flour, which makes the cake tough and dense rather than tender.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Allspicethe original
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Cardamomfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, molasses, pork, milk, cinnamon, 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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