On January 17 , 1912 , explorerRobert Falcon Scottalmost made account . On that engagement , he and a little team of adventurer completed a harrowing journeying to the geographical South Pole . As it turned out , the group was n’t , as they had desire , the first to ever arrive at the outback localization . A group led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had completed its own despatch to the South Pole just 34 day earlier . Scott ’s disappointment in arriving secondly would show to be tragically short - live ; on the return journey , he and his entire mathematical group succumbed to exposure and starving .
Of all the artifacts recovered over the long time from Scott ’s ill - plump expedition,2017may have turned up the foreign : a in full entire fruitcake . It was found at an early Antarctic base camp , and historic documents show that Scott had brought the same brand of fruitcake with him on his South Pole sojourn . It was a hardheaded pick for a long trek through uninviting climes . Fruitcake is a nutritionist’s calorie - heavy nutrient , and it ’s resilient — reallyresilient . The scientists who rule Scott ’s century - oldfruitcakesaid it was “ in excellent condition , ” and reportedly bet “ almost edible . ”
The story of Robert Scott ’s long - forgotten fruitcake seems to affirm some of the bad stereotypes about the infamous parched good . But though fruitcake may be the butt of a lot of jokes , there ’s a reason it secured its place in our cultural empyrean .
Fruitcake Through the Ages
The earliest record of something resemble fruitcake comes from Ancient Rome . formula for a concoction calledsaturacalled for meld raisin , pomegranate seeds , and pine nuts with barley mash and honeyed wine . It was supposedly a favorite bite of popish soldiers heading to thebattlefield : Its portability and shelf - life were valuable assets . Satura , with its melange of element , is even thought to be connected to the pedigree of the wordsatire , the cutting but humorous literary form the Romans helped produce .
A version of screwball that more closely resemble what we eat today appear in the Middle Ages . The Crusades top to an increase in trade between Europe and the Moslem earth , anddried fruitsimported from theMediterraneanbecame more common in share of Europe . People start baking them into their cakes for special occasion . dissimilar body politic throughout the continent put their own spin on the afters . Italy hadpanforte , which literally translates to “ inviolable bread , ” a quotation to the formula ’s strong-growing spices . Germany producedstollen , a sunbaked good with fruit and nuts that ’s more like bread than the cake we ’re familiar with here in the States .
Fruitcake vs. Figgy Pudding
Britisher were delight their own version of fruitcake by the end of the16th C . And if you ’ve ever listened toChristmas musicand ask yourself " what the heck is figgy pud , anyway ? " the answer is basically fruitcake , with at least one key departure : Fruitcake is bake , while figgy pud is shaped into a dome and either boiled or steamed .
In Britain , the wordpuddingcan be used for anything from blood sausages ( known asblack pudding ) to savory bake goods ( likeYorkshire puddings ) . But today the Good Book most ordinarily refers to any sweet dish eat on at the goal of a repast , more or less correspondent todesserthere in the states . As for the adjectivefiggy , some food for thought historianssay that in Cornwall , figgy pud is justa local namefor plum pudding . Which , confusingly , usuallydoesn’tcontain plums . It may have earlier , butnowadaysit ’s usually made with raisins or currant . Other food for thought historianspoint to a recipe in a 14th one C cookery book compiled by the master - James Cook of King Richard II forFygey . That dish was made with ground Prunus dulcis , wine , and figs , and some say it ’s an ancestor of figgy pud . At some point in all of this mess British caroler started whistle " Now bring us some figgy pud " to their wealthy neighbors around Christmastime .
The dish undergo a major change follow Europe ’s colonization of the Americas . Sugar was abruptly plentiful in the so - called “ old world , ” and candy yield became a vulgar preservation method . sugarcoat fruitfound its way into plum pudding , and all that contribute scratch turn the hearty , comparatively nutritious bar into a decadent indulgence . And a popular one — in 1748 , a rutabaga visit England commented “ the graphics of cooking as practise by Englishmen does not stretch forth much beyond roast gripe and plum pudding . ” fire .
Fruitcake and Queen Victoria
We know that crackpot appeared onChristmastables before long after it spread through Europe , but we do n’t know exactly how the dish became associated with the vacation . Inmedieval times , labor - intensive sweet made from fine ingredient tended to be saved for special occasions like holidays , so fruitcake ’s connection to Christmas makes sense . During theVictorian Era , when much of thetraditionand iconography aroundChristmaswas solidify in popping finish , the connection between crank and Yuletide became even stronger .
TheVictoriansloved bake fruitcake , and many of them could n’t wait until the holidays to enjoy it . At the wedding ofQueen Victoriaand Prince Albert , invitee were dish a nut for dessert , a fade of which actually sell at auction in 2016 for 1500 lb . After Victoria , fruitcake became the bar of choice for English hymeneals , though their popularity has waned over time .
At least among the oecumenical public . Fruitcakewason the menu at the royal weddings of Princess Diana and Prince Charles in 1981 and Kate Middleton and Prince William in 2011 .
So why did Victorians love crackpot so much ? It may have beenthe booze . They addedalcoholto the recipe as a way to uphold the cake and advance its flavor . After the fresh cake has a hazard to cool , baker will wrap it in a fabric soaked in hard liquor and seal off it in an airtight container . Alcohol kills bacteria , as well as any barm or mould that would otherwise acquire on a fruitcake and make it inedible . This physical process is calleddenaturation .
The Science Behind Fruitcake
Denaturation can pass for a telephone number of reason , including changes intemperatureor pH. When you fudge an nut and the blank becomes unintelligible , for exemplar , it ’s because the proteins in the albumen are denature . When a protein denatures , the sequence of amino pane comprising the protein remains the same , but its shape change , sometimes irreversibly so . That interchange shape can cause the protein to go otherwise , and in the slip of a living being like bacterium , it can in reality kill themicrobe .
When bacteria see alcohol , one of the thing going on is the alcohol denaturing the protein and stop cellular function . Denaturation is one of the ways hand sanitizer work , and it ’s how fruitcake can last so long without going bad . When it comes to shelf life-time , it also aid that crackpot is made with depleted - moisture ingredient like nut and dried fruit , giving bacterium less to bung on in the first position .
Some multitude claim that fruitcake actually gets well with age . The yield in fruit bar contains bitter flavor compound , called tannins , which start out to melt out with sentence . As the cake years , the virulent flavors are toned down and other complex flavors become more pronounced . This , incidentally , is roughly the same process that happen when wine is aged . So if you want to nark your family around the holiday , try pointing out the pernicious notes of wet earth and oak in your aunt ’s yield cake .
How long does fruitcake last?
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture , ring mail - monastic order fruit cakes can stay serious for up to 6 calendar month in the fridge and up to a yr in the deep freezer . There are a numeral of variables in frolic , though — most notably moisture content . We know that Robert Falcon Scott ’s ill - fated Antarctic fruit cake at leastlookededible after chilling for almost 110 geezerhood , and there ’s grounds that some fruit cakes can last even longer than that .
One fellowship fromMichiganhas held on to the same screwball for 142 years . It was bake byFidelia Fordin 1878 concisely before she passed away . Her husband decided to keep the patty as a way to commend her , and decades later , the brace ’s descendent are still honoring that want — for the most part . In 2003 , they brought the cake onThe Tonight Showand allowed Jay Leno to sample a nibble of it in front of a resilient studio audience . Hisreview : “ It want more time . ”
That actually was n’t the first time fruitcake was memorably skewered by a host ofThe Tonight Show . Some people accredit Johnny Carson for giving it its bad repute , excellently joking that , while fruitcakes seemed to be a perennial gift , nobody ever actually rust them . It ’s genuine that fruitcake may not be the most popular dishful on the Christmas table , but that ’s no trouble — you may always save the leftovers and suffice them next year .
This story has been adapted from an instalment of Food History on YouTube .
