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Dessert

Pork Cake

A sweet pork cake with raisins, currants, brown sugar, molasses, and spices baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Pork Cake

Why it works: Raisin and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. 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. Combine the chopped pork, raisins, currants, and brown sugar in a large bowl.

  2. Pour the boiling water over the mixture and stir well.

  3. Add the baking soda, spices, and molasses, mixing until fully combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through.

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. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  2. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Currant + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,817 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Pork
Provides the meaty base and richness that defines the cake's dense texture.
Raisins
Add chewy moisture and natural sweetness throughout the batter.
Currants
Add small pockets of chewy moisture and tartness.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a caramel-like depth of flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and moisture to lift the batter as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda with the boiling water. Baking soda needs moisture and acidity to react and leaven the batter. Mixing it in thoroughly before baking keeps the rise even and prevents pockets of bitter, unreacted soda.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, raisin, sugar, 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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