Pork Cake by The Duchess of Windsor, circa 1942

[admin tim]

The Duchess of Windsor’s Pork Cake

1/2 pound fat salt pork, ground
3/4 cup boiling water
3/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
2 cups raisins
1 cup currants, washed and dried
3 1/2 cups sifted flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Oddly enough, instructions do not feature the phrase “hand recipe to lackey to hand to cook”, rather:

Place pork in a mixing bowl and add boiling water. Add molasses, brown sugar, raisins and currants and cool. Mix and sift the flour, baking soda and spices together three times. Add to the molasses mixture and beat until smooth. Turn into long narrow bar pan (10 X 4 X 3 inches) and bake in a slow oven (325 F.) 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Delicious? We await Howard's report.

[Curryong]

It sounds more like a meat loaf, though I have to admit I'm not really into dried fruit and meat mix, especially with molasses. On the other hand I do like pork pies occasionally, unhealthy though they are.

[Anna Morris]

I started to comment that it looked like a bacon grease mincemeat but had misread the amount of flour at 1/2 cup instead of 3 and 1/2 cups.

Actually this might be a good recipe though wouldn't ground salt pork make tough chunks in the batter? I think if one substituted lard for the fat of the salt pork and if one wanted more salt pork flavour, added small bits of bacon, it might be interesting. Bacon cake. For those who want bacon in everything it ought to be a winner.

[Curryong]

Well, I put chopped bacon into recipes sometimes, including home made meat loaf, which is delicious.

I have to say that the recipe sounds very chunky somehow and definitely not healthy. It would be filling, though, served with vegs and gravy and I suppose, as it's a recipe from World War 2 when virtually everyone was in labour-intensive employment, that would be important.

[Anna Morris]

I thought about gravy too, Curryong. But is this an entree or is it a cake? Like a fruit cake? It would turn out a bit more like fruit cake I think. Salt pork in the US is pretty much the fat part of what could have been bacon. Is it different in England? In fact this recipe reminds me a bit of some of the English puddings that contain suet. I'm actually tempted to try this recipe but think I'd do the lard substitution and use bacon bits, real bacon bits. From what I know of salt pork it is largely a salted, somewhat cured source of lard. The fat content of this cake would have been filling in a time of shortages.

[Robert Linford]

Did the Duchess of Windsor leave any recipes for sponge cake with cream and jam filling?

[admin tim]

I say, old fruit:

Due to the surprising interest in the Duchess of Windsor's pork cake (and the even more surprising lack of interest on Howard's part), I have below made available additional royal recipes, punctuated by some of the most interesting royal gossip I've seen lately.

http://www.kafkaesqueblog.com/2012/12/08/your-majesty-dinner-is-served-part-i-the-british-royal-family-food-recipes/

http://www.kafkaesqueblog.com/2012/12/08/your-majesty-dinner-is-served-part-ii-european-royal-families-royal-banquets-ten-royal-recipes/

I looked hard and found no chili recipes. No wonder the Empire fell.

[admin tim]

Did the Duchess of Windsor leave any recipes for sponge cake with cream and jam filling?

Alas, Robert, none seem to be in evidence. However:

http://britishfood.about.com/od/adrecipes/r/Classic-Victoria-Sponge-Cake-Recipe.htm

https://dearloveblog.wordpress.com/2011/04/30/victoria-sponge-a-cake-fit-for-royalty/

http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/kate-middleton-royal-baby-boy-royal-recipes-celebrate/story?id=19736760#1

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/english/all-in-one-sponge-cake-with-raspberry-and-mascarpone-cream.html

[Robert Linford]

Thanks Tim. I think Victoria sponge cake was what I meant. I'll have Delia's cake too.

[Anna Morris]

Excellent stuff, Tim. My basic potato salad recipe is Salat Olivier. It is very good. Plus I don't like mayonnaise and the sour cream dilutes it.

The pork cake is the first recipe I have seen in these threads that wasn't basically nasty. That's why we're discussing it. It sounds edible.

[admin tim]

The pork cake is the first recipe I have seen in these threads that wasn't basically nasty.

Didn't you see the High Apple Pie recipe?

And the Decomposing Human Head Cake at least tasted good.

[Anna Morris]

Sorry, Tim. I looked at a few recipes & made the snarky comment that we didn't have an emoticon for vomiting and I think you provided a real nice one.

There's no way to make bad apple pie. (Unless I suppose some jpker decided to put mayonnaise in it. Please don't find a recipe like that BTW.)

[admin tim]

Hold the mayo - got it.

Perchance madame would then be interested in this?

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/german-chocolate-sauerkraut-cake

Like the slimehead (aka orange roughy), sounds gross, tastes great. I've had this before and it is 'wunderbar'.

Silly girl - everybody knows you have cheddar cheese with apple pie, not mayonnaise.

[Robert Linford]

There is certainly a way to make a bad apple pie, and I would be one of the prime candidates, should I ever decide to make one.

[Anna Morris]

I have eaten the sauerkraut cake before and it is very good.

I never got the point of cheddar cheese and apple pie. It's not a western custom as nobody I ever knew served it that way. Tried it out of curiosity but prefer the pie straight or with rum sauce. At this time I prefer a caramel apple pie which makes its own sauce.