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Dessert

Pork Cake

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

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

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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

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. Chop the fat salt pork until it resembles lard.

  2. Pour boiling water over the chopped pork.

Make the batter

  1. Add sugar, molasses, and baking soda mixed into the molasses.

  2. Stir in raisins and shaved citron.

  3. Add enough sifted flour to achieve a common cake batter consistency.

  4. Season with nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 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. Nutmeg + clovetop 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

Fat salt pork
Adds richness and moisture to the cake as it melts into the batter.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and a moist, slightly acidic depth to the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas, helping the cake rise.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Mixing the baking soda into the molasses. Baking soda needs an acid to release carbon dioxide. Dissolving it in the molasses before other ingredients are added lets the reaction start in the batter, supporting an even rise.

“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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