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Pork Cake

A baked pork cake with currants, raisins, sugar, syrup, spices, and citrus.

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

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

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

Mix and bake

  1. In a large bowl, combine the currants, raisins, sugar, syrup, baking soda, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon.

  2. Add the soaked pork and mix well.

  3. Fold in citron or lemon as desired.

  4. Pour the mixture into a greased baking pan.

  5. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through, about 1 hour.

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

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

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 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, and melts to keep the cake tender.
Currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, helping the cake stay soft.
Baking soda
Reacts with the mixture to lift the cake and give it a lighter crumb.

The step that matters

Bake until cooked through. Baking soda needs heat to react and set the batter, and the dense fruit and pork mixture stays gummy if underbaked. Checking the centre ensures the structure has fully set.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, raisin, sugar, syrup, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon. 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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