No, this is not a political thread!

Researchers in Antarctica find 106-year-old British fruitcake from the Scott expedition in "almost edible" condition:

http://nationalpost.com/life/food/fruitc...69-9ffb658d8cf3

Now you know what to ask for this Christmas!

It's a little known fact, but there are only four fruitcakes that have ever been made worldwide. People just keep re-sending those same four to other friends/relatives at Christmas, year after year. I probably have the same one you had back in 2003 sitting in my freezer right now, waiting to be mailed out again in a few short months.

Actually, there were five. The number dwindled to four for 106 years but thankfully that has been rectified.

(Okay, I'm not actually one to diss fruitcake. I was raised on the homemade variety, baked with care and flavour and brandy or dark rum. I will grant that the commercial ones appear to be baked primarily for shipping durability though.)

Hey! Cut it out and pass that fruitcake to me, you haters!! LOL!

I love fruit cake!! Especially the moist, dark, no rum or icing, and lots of nuts and fruit kind. It's cake and trail mix, for heaven's sake! What's not to like!!

Of course, I do blame my low alcohol tolerance today on the fruit cakes my mom made for Christmas 1980. She put them in the cold cellar in the Fall, so they would be ready for Christmas. Or maybe that was her mincemeat. Or both. (The mincemeat may have had rum in it too, come to think of it. LOL!) I'm not sure how many fruit cakes we ate, or how many jars of mincemeat, but my brother and I finished them all before the day before Christmas Eve. At 46 years old, I have rarely been in so much trouble.

Six degrees of fruitcake separation?

Remember the C Ration pound cake. How come the US Govt never put fruit cake into the C Rations? Too much rum????

It's the get to know you stories like this that I enjoy reading on ETS.

Jeanette Isabelle

Yes! Further research reveals that they indeed made a fifth, anniversary edition fruitcake, to commemorate the original four. It was baked sometime back around 1873 I believe. And that fifth one made it's way up to Canada around the turn of the 20th century, but was inexplicably eaten by some family up there.

Doug ... ok - so in the interest of finding the truth. It should be possible to find out the recipe that was used for British fruit cakes ... 100 years ago. Thats about the time of the First World War. And that is why they were prepared then ... for British soldiers fighting in the trenches in WW1. So the recipe is definitely in old British cookbooks from that era.

Pete

Here is a list a of ingredients and a tale about the joy of eating the cake:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzdKDXGIues

Probably the soldiers were issued a cheaper version of it.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Mrs Fogarty nor with the Irish Rovers

My terrible dark secret is that I love my family's traditional Thanksgiving/Christmas fruitcake.

Dark, rich, loaded with rum (or bourbon), molasses, candied fruit, raisins, and walnuts: moist, not sweet, but with a taste that keeps you coming back for more.

Don't know how long it would last---don't remember one ever lasting more than a couple of days before totally consumed, especially the ones I received while away at college. . .

Max

thank you.
a quick thought about WW1.
in fact, what happened is that families would make these fruit cakes, and then send pieces to the soldiers. i know this was common in Australia, where I lived as a boy. WW1 was before my time. But the family remembered the old days. there was mail. so wives and sweethearts would wrap a large piece of fruitcake, I think in paper and secured tightly with tape and string. then give it to the Army, to be delivered to the soldier who was fighting.
And the Army was very loyal about doing these deliveries ... because it was an excellent way of maintaining morale.

Of course, it might take months for a piece of fruit cake to travel from Australia to the war in Europe. But that was really the point - the fruit cake would last that long and not decay.

So I have always wondered ... was there something special in the British recipe for fruit cake, that caused it to last so long? The British recipe was widely used throughout the old colonies of Britain, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and other places.