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Pork, Meat Cake of, Cold
Cut the meat, fat and lean, from a cold joint of roast pork, and mince it very finely; mix with it a couple of large potatoes freshly boiled and mashed, a little salt and pepper, a chopped onion, and a pinch of powdered sage. Add two or three eggs and a little milk, sufficient to make a very thick batter. Fry the cake like an omelet, or bake in a buttered dish. Serve with pickled onions or gherkins. Time to fry, until nicely browned. Probable cost, 6d., exclusive of the cold pork.
A leftovers dish from the era when a Sunday roast was expected to feed the household for three days. The mixture is closer to a thick fritter batter than a cake, and the main risk is making it too wet.
- Proportions, since none are givenAbout 2 cups of finely minced cooked pork to 2 large potatoes (roughly 1 lb), 2 eggs, and milk added a spoonful at a time. The recipe asks for a "very thick batter", so aim for something thick and sluggish rather than free-flowing. Three eggs only if the mixture is stiff enough to take the extra liquid.
- Mash while hotThe potatoes need to be freshly boiled and mashed so they bind the meat as they cool. Mash that has gone cold is stiffer and harder to work evenly through the mince, and the cake will be heavier for it.
- Mince, do not processHand-chopping or a coarse grinder plate gives the texture the recipe assumes. A food processor turns cold roast pork to paste and the cake loses all its bite.
- If baking, set a temperatureThe book says only "bake in a buttered dish" and gives no temperature. If you want a figure, a buttered shallow dish at around 375F for 30-40 minutes, until set and browned on top, works well.
- If fryingCook it as one thick cake in a well-buttered pan over medium heat, 6-8 minutes a side, or divide into smaller patties, which are far easier to turn without breaking. Chilling the mixture for half an hour firms it up first.
- SagePowdered dried sage is what the book means, and a pinch is right; it is assertive and will dominate the pork if you go further. Fresh sage, finely chopped, needs about three times the volume.
- OnionRaw chopped onion will still be crunchy in a fried cake. Softening it in butter first gives a more even result, though the original clearly expects the bite.
- YieldServes three or four as a supper dish with the pickles, which are not optional garnish -- the vinegar is what cuts the fat of the pork.
Cassell's belongs to a tradition of British cookery writing in which the second life of a joint mattered as much as the first, and the "probable cost, 6d., exclusive of the cold pork" tells you exactly how the book expected to be used: the meat was already paid for, and the question was what sixpence of potatoes, eggs and milk could do with it. Dishes of this kind appear under many names in Victorian and Edwardian books -- rissoles, croquettes, meat cakes, savoury puddings -- and the shared logic is minced cold meat bound with a starch and egg, then browned to give the surface interest that reheating alone cannot. The pork-and-sage pairing is older than the book by centuries and was long established in English cookery. Serving the cake with pickled onions or gherkins reflects the period's cold-table habits, where a sharp pickle stood in for a sauce and required no further cooking.