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Pork Cake

A sweet pork cake made with coffee, sugar, molasses, spices, raisins, citron, and currants.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a warm oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Chop the salt pork as fine as lard.

  2. Pour the boiling coffee over the chopped pork.

  3. Add the brown sugar, molasses, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, raisins, citron, and currants.

  4. Mix well and pour into a greased baking pan.

Bake

  1. Bake slowly at 300°F (150°C) until done.

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. 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

Salt pork
Adds fat and savoury richness that keeps the cake moist as it bakes.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds dark colour, moisture and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas, helping the cake rise and lighten.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Bake slowly at 300°F (150°C) until done. A low, slow oven lets the dense, fruity batter cook through evenly without the outside burning or drying out before the centre sets. Judge doneness by the centre rather than by time alone.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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