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Dessert

Pork Cake

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Pork Cake

Why it works: Allspice and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

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

  2. Stir in the molasses and brown sugar until well mixed.

  3. Add the raisins, currants, chopped almonds, allspice, nutmeg, and baking soda; mix thoroughly.

  4. Pour in the brandy and gradually add flour until the batter is stiff.

Bake

  1. Transfer the mixture to a greased baking pan and bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick 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. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Currant + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,359 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh fat pork
Adds richness and moisture, melting during baking to keep the cake tender.
Molasses
Contributes dark color, moisture and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crumb brown during baking.
Flour
Provides structure so the batter sets into a cake rather than staying loose.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acids to lighten the batter and help it rise.

The step that matters

Adding the flour gradually. Flour must be added slowly so the batter reaches a stiff, even consistency. Too much at once can make the cake dense and tough, while too little leaves it too wet to hold its shape.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, molasses, sugar, raisin, almond, allspice, nutmeg. 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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