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Dessert

Pork Cake

A baked pork cake with raisins, molasses, brown sugar, spices, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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

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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, combine the pork mixture with brown sugar, molasses, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, raisins, brandy, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

  3. Gradually add flour until the mixture is well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for three 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. 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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Fat pork
Adds richness and moisture to the cake as it renders during baking.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together once set.
Baking powder
Releases gas that helps the batter rise and become lighter.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidic molasses to help the cake rise and brown.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness with mild acidity.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the cake and keeps it moist, with caramel-like flavor.

The step that matters

Gradually add flour until well combined. Adding flour gradually and mixing only until combined prevents lumps and overworking. Too much gluten development can make the cake dense and tough.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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