I was performing my annual refridgerator cleaning tonight, which usually results in a slumgullion stew. There, back behind the discount gallon can of soy sauce and a mummified greek lambshank was, THE TIN. It was the last of last December's Fruit Cake ( shrieks as our readers decide AOL parental blocking is useless.) Still edible,I was also happy to rediscover a long lost carbon Mora, now beautifully pickled in Damascene colours like Excaliber in the stone. This made me think of our british reader's annual Christmas puddings with prizes and coins inside. And then it hit me! No more messy oils, rattling PSKs or the inevitable voids. I'll merely pour fruitcake mix into my kits, cook and be done with it. No more messy MRE packaging, finding expensive and never used kit rusted, mildewed or degraded. I won't be dropping anything either when I open my PSK Jack -in - the-Box. You heard it here first people, though I'm sure the other websites will be posting this as original genius in a day or so. <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

Sounds like a winner to me, I love fruitcake!!!

Fruitcake is also Brit Speak for mental.
Not that I could possibly be drawing any conclusions of course. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Swiss Colony has the best fruitcake, in my opinion. Cheap fruitcake is too much cake & not enough fruit. I once read about a comment by an archeologist that scientists of the future will be able to date stuff found in garbage dumps by the layers of fruitcake discarded annually. This is similar to dating climate changes by tree rings.

Chris why would anyone eat something that resembles a few steps below doorstop in the food chain? my kids won't eat it and neither will my dog (hienz 57 breed) What are you thinking?


really though, it sounds like you have the ultimate food supply for hiking and campimg <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Fruitcake can be very good, but you need to get a recipe and make it yourself. The storebought stuff is so full of preservatives the layers of fruitcake thrown out are probably as edible now as they were when bought <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

What about the weight? My understanding is that real fruitcake has approximately the same density as lead. So the benefit of protecting your kit comes with the added price of a 30 lb altoids tin?

"...Fruitcake is also Brit Speak for mental..."

As in "nuttier than a..."???

So what's your point???

hahahaha

Me too. I love the Claxton brand. My late Grandma used to buy it for her and I for Christmas. I'll eat it and think of her this Christmas..

Welcome to the very exculsive fraturnity of Fruitcakes Are Really Teriffic!!! Chris can be, by virtue of his exalted status as moderator, Grand Pooba, you wanna run for Veep???

FRUIT CAKE!! I know I'm dating myself, but I remember the tins of fruitcake in the old C-rats. On a cold, wet night it tasted pretty good with a half canteen cup of GI instant coffee/cocco.

"There is nothing so frightening as ignorance in action."

Using fruitcakes for survival food sounds all well and good, until you come to the realization that there are only three fruitcakes in actual existance. They were all made back in the 1800's. The same ones just keep getting passed around from family to family at Christmas time.

You are wrong! I ate all three of those a couple of years ago. The ones floating around now are decades newer...

Still got your P-38??? I do...

C-Rat pound cake with peaches! The canned nut cake was petty good too. Some of the older rats even had a small pack of cigarettes.

LONG LIVE THE FRUITCAKE!!!!!!!!!!!

I know there are many people Out There who hate fruitcake. My question: are you talking about the dry, crumbly bitter fruitcake that was made in Formosa from Old Aunt Ethel's decoy recipe that some hated relative gave them? I'm sure you're not referring to Old Aunt Ethel's REAL recipe that she only parted with on her deathbed years later. It was really yummy and soaked with old brandy. Well, Old Aunt Ethel was also usually soaked with old brandy, too, but that's another story.

A good fruitcake, along with chocolate, contains all the basic nutritious food groups: grain, sugar, fruit and alcohol, fat and chocolate.

Just think of it as the modern American's pemmican! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

p.s. The Mora (or other carbon steel) isn't necessary, no matter what CK says.

Sue

Ya just gotta stay away from the lima beans and, er ah, ham...

Chris why would anyone eat something that resembles a few steps below doorstop in the food chain?

My dad told me that his ship rescued a torpedoed sailor in WWII. The fellow said that he'd eaten his boots and belt, and a seagull he'd managed to grab. He finished up with: ``Thank God you found me ... another few weeks and I would have had to try to eat the survival rations.''

The sailors believed that the rations were made to taste awful, so bored sailors wouldn't munch them before the ship was torpedoed. Dad's story was probably not totally true, but it makes an important point about survival rations. You want them to be nasty enough that you won't eat them just because you are a little bit hungry. That way, you know they will be there in a real emergency.

Don't waste your time on a Claxton fruit cake. Go to a local bread bakery and buy from them. This is the right time of year for a real good bakery fruit cake.

My only use for a Claxton fruit cake now is as a wheel chock on my pickup truck.

Costco usually has good ones around Christmas time, don't know what brand. We are on the low carb diet again, I wonder how many carbs are in a nice chunk of fruitcake???

I don't know about long term storage, but it should keep the pillagers from taking the last resort of last resort gear.

No, you have fruitcake as your first line of defense. If the neighbors or govt officials come around, demanding your supplies, 'grudgingly' give them all your fruitcakes. That ought to teach 'em! <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Sue

I think they're immortal, Lance, they'll live forever. As much as anything that has been in a 400 degree oven for an hour can be alive, at least.

Oh, maybe that explains it- fruitcake is the undead of baked goods. :P

Chris -- You've piqued my curiosity. Any chance we could see a photo of this wonderful damascene colored Mora?

on my way to the car after a christmas party i once fought off 10 armed attackers with nothing but a fruitcake. in trained hands, the fruitcake can be deadly. but beware of its power. you must never give in to the dark side of the fruitcake.

The "concrete block" used to construct my garage is really camoflaged fuitcake! <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

" the undead of baked goods"
LMAO.......... Ohhhh were is the cleric to "turn" them when you need them

You only clean your refrigerator once a year?

Happened to watch Jay Leno the other night for the first time in months, and was saddened to learn that "The Fruitcake Lady" has died. The end of an era...

no, i think you're mistaken. last time i checked most of the women in my family are still alive. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Well, it has been nice knowing you, I suspect that your days are now numbered...