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Dessert

Pork Cake

A spiced pork cake with raisins, citron, and molasses baked at 300°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Pork Cake

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pork Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped pork and boiling water.

  2. Add the raisins, shredded citron, sugar, molasses, and dissolved baking soda.

  3. Mix well, then stir in the ground cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

  4. Gradually add flour until the mixture reaches a common cake batter consistency.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 1 hour and 40 minutes.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Raw pork
Provides the bulk and moisture of the cake's body once finely chopped and cooked through.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and releases gas that lifts and lightens the batter as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep sweet, slightly acidic flavor.
Flour
Forms the structure that sets the batter into a cake as the proteins cook.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Gradually add flour until the batter reaches cake consistency. Adding flour all at once can create lumps and an uneven texture. Flour must be mixed in until the batter is smooth and pourable, because too much flour makes the cake dense and dry.

“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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