January 9th & Pork Cake
Burlington Vermont 1875
January 9th 1875
PEACH CORDIAL
Make a rich syrup of one quart of peach juice and one pound of white sugar; when cold add half a pint of the best brandy; for a drink dilute with water the same as any fruit shrub.
Avondale Pennsylvania
January 9th 1912
PORK CAKE
1 lb. pork fat (ground)
½ Pt of boiling water (pour on fat) <Pt is pint>
1 cup baking molassas
2 cups brown sugar
1 good teaspoon of soda
Spices to taste
Cup or two of raisins, citron, orange peel, dates nuts –
Flour to stiffen.
Mrs. Conley Middleton
DAILY RECIPES BY CALENDAR
As an ongoing feature here, I will add to this each day the recipes out of several books I have that are dated or from calendar books
The list of names for the people who contributed recipes for these books are listed here;
https://kitchenrecipetreasures.com/2021/03/04/daily-recipes-by-calendar-family-names/
Visit my ebay store to find some great kitchen utensils and collectables to go along with these vintage and antique recipes.
https://www.ebay.com/str/ozziesattic720?_trksid=p2047675.l2563
This is a very interesting cake, Pork Cake; I have been researching it for a while now. It keeps showing up in most of my turn of the century cook books, they all have at least one version of it and sometimes several of them. They are all a type of fruit cake, made with lots of fruits and spices, some have booze in them and others with juice; I even have one that uses hot coffee instead of the hot water to soften the fat.
Yes, it is made with raw pork fat which has been washed in boiling water, hot coffee or other hot liquids, and either chopped very fine or pulverized. Reading the recipes, they do not specifically say to use the pork suet/fat and not the meat, but I will assume that is what they meant when written; I would believe the meat would be eaten and the fat kept for other purposes in cooking.
The dates on most of the resources I have are around the late 1800’s into the1930’s. With further research there are all kinds of them from the 1700’s on. They seem to use the pork suet as the fat for the cake, instead of butter, oil, shortening or margarine. It has been interesting to read these and try to figure where they come from or how they evolved.
They usually have fruit, spices and citron in them, quite a few of them have molasses so they probably evolved from the old-style suet puddings and fruit cakes. I have found one from the Williamsburg cook book from the 1700’s, and many of them are from the WWII era as rationing took away things like sugar, butter and eggs; this cake was a way to use up the leftover food and make a sweet treat.
The infamous Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Warfield wrote a cook book where the proceeds all went to the English war effort called; “Some Favorite Southern Recipes of the Duchess of Windsor” (Charles Scribner’s Sons, Publisher in the 1940’s) In this book she make it from a half pound of salt cured fatback, (suet) that you have to grind down to use, boil it in water to get rid of the salt and then pour boiling water over it to melt it before adding the other ingredients; which do not include eggs, butter or white sugar. Others I have found include things like tomato soup, brandy and several other types of alcohol, applesauce, nuts and coffee; they all include spices, usually cinnamon, dried or candied fruits most often raisins, currants and citron and most have no eggs, milk or butter in them.
A lot of them are from the Southern States and each area has their own versions of the same basic recipe. They all make a rich, dense cake that cooks slowly for 2 ½ to 4 hours in a slow oven (250 to 275 degrees) and will store well for long periods of time. One from the year 1909 says;
“This CAKE keeps well if stored in a covered stone crock. It may be reheated in the top of double boiler, and served hot with PUDDING Sauce.”
I have not been brave enough to make one of these yet, but I am intrigued by it.
From Glenburn Maine 1850’s through 1920’s.
From Glenburn Maine 1850’s through 1920’s.
From Glenburn Maine 1850’s through 1920’s.
Buckeye Cookery from the 1880’s
Household Friend from 1876
Irwin PA from the 1910’s through 1920’s
Irwin PA from the 1910’s through 1920’s
Irwin PA from the 1910’s through 1920’s
1930’s Reprint of a 1700’s cookbook
1908 cookbook from the ladies of St. John’s Church
1909 cookbook from the ladies of Crete Nebraska
Morgantown West Virginia from the 1960’s through the 1990’s.
Mansfield Mississippi from the 1970’s through the 1990’s. A very interesting recipe using sausage.
