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Pork Cake

A sweet pork cake made with molasses, raisins, citron, spices, 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 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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Pour boiling water over the salt pork and let it sit.

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the molasses, dark sugar, raisins, citron, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and flour. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

  2. Add the soaked pork to the mixture and stir until evenly distributed.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 3 hours.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweet flavor to the cake.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to help the cake rise and lighten.
Salt pork
Adds richness and fat that keeps the cake moist and tender.
Dark sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning and moisture in the crumb.
Raisins
Add chewy pockets of fruit sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Baking the batter for the full time at a moderate oven. Long, gentle baking lets the heavy, sugar-rich batter set through the center without the outside burning. Baking too hot can scorch the sugars before the middle is cooked, so the oven temperature and full baking time both matter.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Raisinthe original
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Orangefits about as well
  4. Vanillafits about as well

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