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Dessert

Pork Cake

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

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

one large loaf or two small ones

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Chop the pork finely until it resembles lard and pour the boiling water over it.

  2. Combine the chopped raisins and citron with the pork mixture.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in a little water and stir it into the mixture.

  4. Add the cinnamon, mace, sugar, cloves, molasses, nutmeg, and enough flour to achieve a stiff batter.

  5. Test a small amount in a patty pan.

  6. If the mixture is too rich, add more flour.

Bake

  1. Bake slowly in a lined pan as you would for other fruit cakes.

  2. This recipe makes one large loaf or two small ones.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

  5. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Fat salt pork
Supplies fat that keeps the cake moist and tender as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and moisture to lift and lighten the batter.
Raisins
Add sweetness, chewy texture and moisture throughout the cake.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, sweet flavor.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter together as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps with browning and moisture.

The step that matters

Testing the batter consistency. Flour is added until the batter is stiff, and the mixture varies with the pork's fat and the water's heat. A small test bake in a patty pan shows whether it is too rich, so more flour can be added before the full loaf is baked.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, raisin, cinnamon, coffee, sugar, clove, molasses. 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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