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Dessert

Pork Cake

A sweet, spiced loaf made with salt pork, sugar, molasses, coffee, eggs, spices, dried fruit, flour, and leavening agents.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Pork Cake

Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pork Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

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

  2. In a large bowl, combine the chopped salt pork, brown sugar, molasses, strong coffee, and beaten eggs.

  3. Add the mace, cloves, grated nutmeg, and essence of lemon, mixing well.

  4. Fold in the chopped currants, raisins, and citron.

Make the batter

  1. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda.

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

  3. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for 3 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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,483 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its starches set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and coffee to lift the batter as it bakes.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that works with the baking soda to help the cake rise.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep flavor, and acidity that reacts with the baking soda.

The step that matters

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding flour in stages and stirring only until combined keeps the batter smooth and prevents overworking, which would toughen the cake's texture.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sugar, molasses, coffee, egg, clove, 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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