Pork Cake
One-half pound of salt pork (fat only); one and one-half cups of sugar; one cup of New Orleans molasses; one-half pint of boiling coffee; one-half pound of raisins; one tablespoon of cinnamon; one teaspoon of cloves; one teaspoon of ginger; one teaspoon of soda; flour to make stiff. The pork should be chopped perfectly fine.
A survivor from the era before reliable butter, this is a dark spice cake in which finely minced salt pork fat supplies both the shortening and the salt. It works, but two details in the original need filling in.
- Melt the pork with the coffeeThe recipe insists only that the fat be chopped perfectly fine, but it also calls for the coffee boiling, which suggests pouring the half pint (1 cup) of boiling coffee directly over the chopped fat in a large bowl so the heat renders it into the liquid. Stirring cold pork into the batter instead is likely to leave flecks of unrendered fat in the finished cake.
- "Flour to make stiff"Genuinely unquantified. With this volume of liquid, expect roughly 3 1/2 to 4 cups of flour, added until the batter is thick enough to hold a spoon upright for a moment. Aim for a stiff drop batter, not a dough.
- Salt pork, and what to buyUse fat salt pork or plain fatback, not bacon, and not the pancetta-style cured cuts; smoke and pepper are wrong here. Rinse the surface salt off and pat dry, and add no further salt to the batter.
- New Orleans molassesThis means dark, full-flavoured unsulphured molasses. It is not blackstrap, which is more bitter and will fight the spices.
- The sodaOne teaspoon of soda is baking soda (saleratus in older books). The molasses supplies the acid it needs, so no other leavening or cream of tartar is required. Dissolve it in a little of the hot liquid and add near the end.
- RaisinsHalf a pound is about 1 1/2 cups. Toss them with a spoonful of the measured flour before folding in, or they sink through this loose batter.
- Pan and ovenBake in a greased and floured tube pan or two loaf pans at 325 to 350F. A tube pan takes about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, loaves closer to an hour; test with a skewer in the centre.
- Yield and keepingAbout one large cake, 12 to 16 slices. Like most molasses cakes it improves after a day or two wrapped tightly, and the pork fat keeps it moist for a week.
Pork cake appears in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American cookbooks as a farm cake: salt pork kept without refrigeration, while fresh butter was seasonal and often needed for the table or for sale. Rendered pork fat, sugar, molasses and dried fruit gave a cake with long keeping quality and no perishable dairy at all, which is why versions of it are sometimes catalogued alongside fruitcakes rather than layer cakes. The instruction to use "New Orleans molasses" reflects a period distinction between the darker, better-flavoured Louisiana product and cheaper sulphured or refinery syrups. The coffee also deepens the colour, a trick shared with many dark gingerbreads of the same period.