welcome friends welcome back to Sunday morning in the old cook book show we're
going to do another recipe today out of the 1915 version of the five roses
cookbook now a little bit of weirdness today so in this cookbook there are a
number of dessert recipes cake recipes pie recipes tart recipes that include
meat and so there's more than one cake in this book that includes pork so I
thought I would do one of these pork cakes so I've put ground pork in this
pot I'm going to put this pot on a high heat with two cups of water I'm gonna
cover it I'm gonna bring it up to a boil and I'm going to cook that pork through
now pork and a cake might seem a little weird in 2019 but there is a long
history with in northern European cooking specifically English cooking
where savory dishes that were based on meat over time morph into dishes that no
longer have meat that are very sweet and the most obvious one of these is
mincemeat you see a mincemeat pie or mincemeat tart those started out mostly
as meat and savory dishes and in most contemporary recipes in 2019
there is absolutely no meat or fat or suet or any of those things left in the
recipe it's just disappeared and becomes
something that's sweet so this strikes me as a cake it's on a similar
trajectory so I've got three eggs here I'm just gonna whisk them together and
then I'm going to whisk in some white sugar now as is typical with this book
there are absolutely no instructions and I mean no instructions other than you
boil the pork in the water there's nothing about how long you cook
it what temperature you cook it which is normal for normal but some of the
ingredients don't even have amounts just that you're put them in and I'm a little
bit worried about that because you can overdo some of these spices like the
cloves so I'm just going to have to guess on that that is molasses so I've
got molasses in there next in I'm gonna put the spices so
cinnamon it just says to put in cinnamon I've got a couple teaspoons of cinnamon
and we'll see what happens because it says it makes three loaves so I'm
imagining there's quite a bit and I mean I know there's going to be quite a bit
because you got a pound of pork pound of raisins pound of dates there's quite a
bit going on here next is nutmeg so I'm just gonna grate in most of one nutmeg
okay that's pretty much the whole nutmeg now whisk that in now I've got ground
clove here it doesn't say how much and I know that cloves can be overpowering so
I don't know I want to try pinch I'm gonna start it with a pinch taste it
after it's done and see if that was too much well maybe a pinch and a half I
don't see where that gets us so just continue whisking that in okay
next in our raisins and of course chopped dates now what put in I think
I'm gonna put in the pork not really sure but I don't know whether to drain
the pork it doesn't say whether to drain the pork doesn't say whether to use the
water so I'm just gonna put it in and see what happens so you ready in goes
the pork and the water and I have to imagine that if you don't eat pork you
could probably use beef find out we'll find out so we're gonna mix this in okay
the last two ingredients are flour and baking soda and it doesn't tell me how
much flour it says just enough so I'm gonna use a 1/3 cup scoop and I'm just
gonna start out with maybe a cup worth of flour so and see where that gets me
and then add it in about a third of a cup at a time and when I get close
that's what I'm gonna add the baking soda cuz I don't want the baking soda to
start too soon and we're gonna see what happens
1 cups not going to make it I'm gonna be at least 3 cups of flour
before I get this done okay so I think I've got a good consistency now if you
are tuning in for the very first time to watch our Sunday morning program let me
tell you something I don't do any research about these recipes I come in
cold I pretend that I've never cooked before and I open up the book and I
start making a recipe and I do use you know the knowledge that I already have
in my head but I don't do any research into the background of the recipe or the
nuances of the recipe if I haven't seen the recipe before I go in cold let me
tell you this one I am frozen cold I have no clue and I already think that
I've made some mistakes but you know I'm gonna keep forging ahead and we'll see
what happens so I put half maybe half the batter in in this loaf pan these
loaf pans are bigger than average so I'm hoping that I can get all of the batter
split between the two and I will see because I don't want to put it into a
third yeah I think we're gonna be fine now I'm gonna put this in the oven I'm
going to watch over it very carefully because I don't know what temperature
and I don't know what time but what I do know is that modern ovens are much more
efficient than the ovens were a hundred years ago so smooth the top a little bit
tap them down and get them in the oven
did you did you did you did you did you did you did you I did so this sounds
good yeah I'm surprised it does actually smell good but I'm you know a little bit
a little bit worried because I think I maybe did some things wrong but we'll
figure it out I was kind of surprised some people notice there were recipes
for this there were arrests multiple recipes yeah multiple recipe for pork
kick and so people people requested it and you know so we did it 20 Lucky's
everything looks good about it it's got the right color it's got the right smell
it's got dates in it of course there's dates dates and raisins and spices and I
didn't know there was pork in it it's a moist yeah
spice cake yeah there is a I think I'm gonna put more spices in it a little bit
well and that's the thing with this recipe there's no indication just says
cinnamon cloves nutmeg there's no indication of how much and if you didn't
tell me there was pork in them no you would have would never notice there's a
weird texture to it the pipes if you told me gave it to me as if this is a
piece of cake there is a weird texture would it be like having it's almost like
having jujubes or something but it is not like a chewy texture that you don't
expect from cake but it's not unpleasant it's a spice loaf though really it's
it's it's a spiced fruitcake so it it has the texture of having fruit in it
that's insane okay so I was worried that the ground pork wasn't right because
this one this this recipe just says one pound of pork chopped fine and I thought
oh after I got going I thought that's not quite right because this one one
page over the pork fruitcake guy so first of all let's remind you there is
more than one there's more than one one page over on the pork fruitcake it's one
pound of solid fat pork chopped very fine and then I started
thinking maybe they didn't want the meat maybe they just wanted the fat mmm like
suet and it looks like suet except using pork instead of and unrendered pork fat
which still has the membranes in it so I'm gonna make this pork fruitcake next
week cuz I'm fascinated because the pork is Anglos to the pork fruitcake has all
of the things that you would have in a fruitcake you the brandy the cloves the
ginger like it'll be a more rounded cake but it more yeah this one's great you
could take it a little bit farther and make it fantastic and I think this one
will be fantastic but it just uses the pork fat so here's
my question to you if you made this would you share it with your friends and
then tell them or would you tell them up front I'm just curious
I like you you feel free to share with us what you think depending on clearly
yeah if your friends are yeah if you have other fruit either they're
vegetarians they okay with that except this is not vegan this is not all those
things but with that exception let's say your family who you know what they eat
yeah would you tell them no I wouldn't tell them I'd put it down just let them
go cuz I think because I'm confident that that is a fantastic cake and they
would look at me and go you're gonna tell me the recipe and then I would say
well I was like with butter on it oh we don't have any here no no okay so um try
it I would definitely say that this 1918 pork cake is a winner and I would make
this again and I'm gonna have a piece with my tea later yep and next week come
on back and we're going to do this sort of expanded pork fruitcake from one page
earlier which has more stuff in it and I think it's going to be amazing and it
won't be a surprise because you're now we know it's good yes thanks for
stopping by see you again soon
you