Old Time Pork Cake for Christmas

About a year ago, I mentioned to Cheryl that I had a recipe for an “Old Time Pork Cake for Christmas.” After some examination of the recipe we decided that we should try to make a batch of the cake. Unfortunately, neither of us knew where to obtain either ground salt pork or candied citrus peel in Montreal.

After several weeks or months Cheryl located a butcher’s shop on St. Laurent that sold salt pork, though in a pre-ground state. Apparently the butcher’s shop was unwilling to grind the meat, as it would likely damage the grinder. So as we solved one problem we encountered another. It was only some number of months later that my mother offered to loan me her meat grinder (which I will now have to transport back to St. John’s on Monday).

The citrus peel also proved to be a problem. The problem of the citrus peel was compounded as I misinterpreted what the needed ingredient actually was. Instead of dry candied citrus peel, we were actually just looking for the more readily available wet stuff.
While I knew where to find such things in St. John’s, I didn’t have quite as much luck in Montreal. It seems that many baking or related products that one can almost take for granted in St. John’s just don’t exist in the same way in Montreal, citrus peel and salt meat being two examples. Finally this fall I was able to locate a store that sold citrus peel, both the lemon and orange varieties.

Once the ingredients, and the means of preparing them properly, were scouted, the remaining problem seemed to be time. As this isn’t any old cake, but a pork cake, the recipe recommends a three-hour baking time rather than the more standard one-hour.

As term was winding down, I was to soon return the meat grinder it seemed a little more urgent to find an agreeable time. Eventually we arranged to do it after our exam yesterday.

We started the process by visiting the stores on St. Laurent that we had previously scouted for the rare products and acquiring the desired ingredients.

In the butcher shop I asked the woman behind the counter for a cup of salt pork. She didn’t quite seem to know what I want and kept repeating ‘bacon,’ which really wasn’t what I was looking for. Eventually an older butcher came over, clearly having overheard the confusion, and with a wink, said that he would take care of us shortly.

Upon finishing with a customer he slipped into the cold room at the end of the store and vanished for a few minutes. Eventually he re-emerged holding a spike, with which he had skewered a long piece of salt pork. He asked us if this is what we were looking for and I indicated that it was. He draped the meat across a cutting area and placed his knife a few inches in and asked us if that was how much we were looking for. I suggested that we wanted a little more, maybe about another quarter inch.

He cut the meat, slipped it into a plastic bag and handed us back to the woman that had originally tried to serve us. She weighed the meat and gave us the price, $1.89. After paying I took my purchase and felt the meat, which was much softer than I had imagined.

We then went north and found the vegetarian bulk store that I had previously visited in my search for citrus peel. We quickly located the peel and scooped up as much as we thought we likely needed and went to the cash register and paid.

Unfortunately, upon arriving at Cheryl’s apartment we checked the recipe, which neither of us had examined in months, and learned that we had only purchased half as much peel as needed, and didn’t have the raisins or currants that we needed. We were also missing allspice.

A second trip was then made to the vegetarian store. We quickly re-found the peel and scooped the desired quantity. The allspice was also quickly located and an appropriate amount scooped into a bag. Unfortunately, it took us a while to find the currants, mainly because of a lack of familiarity with French vocabulary relating to dried fruit products. In the end we were able to acquire the desired products.

As we were checking out for the second time in less than an hour the cashier, who had also served us the first time, asked, in a friendly way, what it was that we were making. After a moment of collective hesitation, I stated that we were making a pork cake. At first the woman didn’t quite seem to understand what it was that we were making. Eventually we were able to express that it was basically a cake with pork, and raisins, currants, and citrus peel.

Shortly after returning I set to grinding the meat. The grinder was attached to the slat of a bench and a bowl placed beneath the outlet. Quickly at first, and them more slowly, the ground pork started to be extruded from the nozzle. Gradually more of the pork was added to the hopper until it was full and the turning of the crank seemed to be doing nothing. Somehow a break through was reached and the pork once again began to move quickly through the grinder.

Once ground, the pork was mixed with a cup of hot coffee and set outside to cool. It was about at this point that it was realized that even after two shopping trips we still did not have all of the required ingredients. We were missing two-thirds of a cup of molasses. Hugh kindly volunteered to pick some up at the local grocery store.

After the pork and coffee mixture had cooled the traditional cake ingredients, such as the spices, leavening agent, sugar, eggs, molasses, and flour were added. Simultaneously, the fruit, the raisins, currants, and peel, were coated in flour. Eventually the two mixtures were combined, both of which were of similar volumes.

The resulting dough was then added poured into a pan on top of three layers of parchment paper and placed in the oven. After a period of cleaning we basically just had to wait until the cake had finished baking, which we expected to be in about three hours.
Fortunately, the cake was fully baked after only about a two hours. The delicacy was then lifted from the pan and allowed to cool on the parchment paper.

Soon after the baking process was complete we decided to test our product and see if it had been worth the effort, or if it was even edible. Much to my surprise, the cake was very tasty and quite passable, particularly considering that it is a basically a fruit cake.

As it was a rather large cake, and of a somewhat strange composition, Cheryl insisted that I take some with me. So now, Nithum and I, just like most households in North America have a hunk of uneaten seasonal cake sitting somewhere, waiting to be served in case company drops in unexpectedly.

Fortunately, this situation will only last for a few days as it is my intention to the transport the hunk of cake to Newfoundland with me when I head out on Monday. Hopefully it will taste as good in a few days as it did yesterday.