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Dessert

Pork Cake

A sweet pork cake made with molasses, raisins, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Pork Cake

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 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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, combine the chopped pork and boiling water; let it cool.

  3. Stir in the molasses, sugar, sour milk mixed with baking soda, raisins, citron, and spices.

  4. Gradually add the flour, mixing until well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into two greased loaf pans.

  2. Bake for about 2 hours 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fat salt pork
Adds richness and moisture to the crumb as it renders during baking.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the cake.
Sour milk with baking soda
The acid reacts with baking soda to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Let the pork and boiling water cool before mixing in the rest. Adding the remaining ingredients while the water is still very hot can disrupt the baking soda reaction and uneven the batter's texture. Cooling lets the batter combine evenly before the leavening works in the oven.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raisinthe original
  4. Applefits about as well

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