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Fruit Cake
— Mrs. Lewis R. Magee
Two pounds of currants, three pounds of raisins, one-fourth pound of citron, one-half pound fat pork, two bananas, one-fourth pound figs, one grated apple, one cup strong coffee, two tablespoons of molasses, two pounds brown sugar, six eggs, one and one-half tablespoons of cloves and cinnamon, two grated nutmegs, three and one-half cups of flour (heaping), two and one-fourth teaspoons of soda put in the flour dry.
— Mrs. J. I. Woodruff
A pork cake in the New England manner, scaled for a household that expected fruit cake to last through the winter. The original assumes you know how to bake it, since it gives no pan, no oven and no time at all.
- The hinge: the pork must be minced to nothingThe half pound of fat pork (in cakes of this type usually fat salt pork, though the receipt does not say so) is the shortening, standing in for butter. It has to be chilled and then chopped, ground or pounded to a near paste so it renders invisibly into the crumb; left in visible dice it stays as chewy white specks. Pork cakes commonly began by pouring a boiling liquid -- usually water, sometimes coffee -- over the minced pork to soften it, which may be what the cup of strong coffee is doing here.
- SaltNone is listed. If the pork used is salt pork, as is usual in cakes of this type, it will carry the salt and none need be added; unrinsed salt pork certainly needs no further salt.
- OvenNothing is stated. A cake of this density belongs in a slow oven, 275-300F, for three to four hours, with the pans lined in doubled parchment and a shallow pan of water on a lower rack. It is done when a skewer comes out clean and the top feels firm rather than springy.
- Yield and pansThis is roughly eleven to twelve pounds of batter. Expect several large loaf pans, or a 10-inch tube pan plus loaves. Filling one enormous pan will leave the centre raw.
- CurrantsDried Zante currants, not fresh red currants. Rinse and dry them, and toss all the fruit with a spoonful of the measured flour so it does not sink.
- Citron and figsCitron means candied citron peel, sold in most supermarkets only around the winter holidays; candied lemon peel is the closest substitute. The figs should be dried and chopped, not fresh.
- Ambiguous spicing"One and one-half tablespoons of cloves and cinnamon" may mean that quantity of each or of the two combined. A tablespoon and a half of each, plus two grated nutmegs (about four to five teaspoons), is heavy but consistent with a black fruit cake of this size.
- SodaTwo and a quarter teaspoons of soda for three and a half cups of flour is high by modern standards, but the molasses, coffee, apple and bananas are all acidic and will take it up. Sift it through the dry flour as directed rather than dissolving it in liquid.
- KeepingCool completely in the pans, then wrap in parchment and foil and let it sit at least a week before cutting; the flavour is flat on day one. A cake this rich keeps for months in a cool place, brushed with spirits if you like.
Salt pork cakes were a standing feature of Northeastern rural baking well into the twentieth century, and they existed for a practical reason: pork fat was in every cellar, while butter was seasonal, perishable and worth selling. Recipes titled "pork cake," "pork apple cake" and, as here, simply "fruit cake" all work the same way, pouring boiling liquid over finely minced fat salt pork so it melts into the batter and leaves nothing behind but richness and keeping quality. The bananas and grated apple mark this version as comparatively late: bananas are generally said to have reached inland American towns in quantity only with improvements in rail transport, and their appearance in a village cookbook receipt is a small sign of a changed grocery. Community cookbooks collected exactly this kind of contribution, each dish signed with the name of the woman who vouched for it.