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Fruitcake is THE Christmas baked good. But... why? Fruitcakes are by no means a favorite holiday dish, so how has it ended up at Christmas dinners for the last few centuries?
Hear the story of an ancient loaf of fruitcake that survived a trip to the South Pole, the decadent fruitcake eaten at a royal wedding, and how fruitcake has endured for so many years.
Food History is a series from Mental Floss where we dive deep into the culinary stories that lead to the food on our plates. If you have an idea for a dish, cooking technique, or cuisine that you'd like us to explore in a future episode, tell us in the comments.
And for the origins of many other foods, check out our episode of the List Show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mTpr...
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Food History: Fruitcake | Mental Floss
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0:00
On January 17, 1912, explorer Robert Falcon Scott almost made history. On that date
0:06
he and a small team of explorers completed a harrowing journey to the geographic South Pole
0:11
As it turned out, the group wasn't, as they had hoped, the first to ever arrive at the remote
0:16
location. The group led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had completed its own expedition
0:21
to the South Pole just 34 days earlier. Scott's disappointment in arriving second would prove to
0:27
to be tragically short-lived. On the return journey, he and his entire group succumb to
0:32
exposure and starvation. Of all the artifacts recovered over the years from Scott's ill-fated
0:37
expedition, 2017 may have turned up the strangest—a fully intact fruitcake. It was found at an
0:45
early Antarctic base camp, and historic documents show that Scott had brought the same brand
0:49
of fruitcake with him on his South Pole sojourn. It was a practical choice for a long trek
0:54
through uninviting climes, fruitcake is a calorie-dense food, and it's resilient. Like
1:00
really resilient. The scientist who found Scott's century-old fruitcake said it was
1:04
quote, "...in excellent condition," and reportedly looked almost edible. Which, to be fair, describes
1:11
most fruitcake, in my experience. Okay, I'm sorry. This video is actually about going beyond cheap punchlines to tell the
1:17
surprisingly interesting history of fruitcake, but when one is just sitting there like that�
1:23
Okay, look, I'll do my best to make sure that any jokes at fruitcake's expense are
1:28
more than just tasteless filler tinged with bitterness, okay? Because, I mean, that's fruitcake's j
1:33
Nope, I'm doing it again. Dang it, it's too easy. Run the intro
1:43
Hi, I'm Justin Dodd. Welcome to Food History. The story of Robert Scott's long-forgotten fruitcake seems to confirm some of the worst
1:51
stereotypes about the infamous baked good. but I promise I'm not here to bash it. Like Guy Fieri, fruitcake may be the butt of a lot of jokes
1:59
but there is a reason it secured its place in our cultural firmament. Oop, sorry, hold on, just getting a really good idea for a tattoo. Okay, a constellation of stars
2:08
outlining Guy Fieri eating a fruitcake right there. Wow, that's good. It's a metaphor
2:15
The earliest record of something resembling fruitcake comes from ancient Rome. Recipes for
2:20
for a confection called satura called for mixing raisins, pomegranate seeds, and pine
2:25
nuts with barley mash and honeyed wine It was supposedly a favorite snack of Roman soldiers heading to the battlefield and not as far as my personal research could tell because chomping down on some soggy raisin cake whips you into an appropriately bellicose fury
2:41
Its portability and shelf life were valuable assets. Satora, with its hodgepodge of ingredients
2:47
is even thought to be connected to the origin of the word satire, the cutting but humorous
2:52
literary form the Romans helped create. A version of fruitcake that more closely resembled
2:57
what we eat or don't eat today appeared in the Middle Ages
3:01
The Crusades led to an increase in trade between Europe and the Muslim world, and dried fruits
3:06
imported from the Mediterranean became more common in parts of Europe. People started baking them into their cakes for special occasions
3:14
Different countries throughout the continent put their own spin on the dessert
3:18
Italy had panforte, which literally translates to strong bread, a reference to the recipe's
3:23
aggressive spices. Germany produced Stollen, a baked good with fruit and nuts that's more like bread than
3:29
the cake we're familiar with here in the States. The English were enjoying their own version of the dish by the end of the 16th century
3:35
And if you've ever listened to Christmas music and asked yourself, what the heck is figgy pudding
3:40
The answer is basically fruitcake, with at least one key difference. Fruitcake is baked, while figgy pudding is shaped into a dome and either boiled or steamed
3:50
In Britain, the word pudding can be used for anything from blood sausages, known as black
3:54
pudding, to savory baked goods like Yorkshire puddings. But nowadays, the word most commonly refers to any sweet dish eaten at the end of a meal
4:03
roughly ogous to dessert here in the States. As for the adjective figgy, some food historians say that in Cornwall, figgy pudding is just
4:11
a local name for plum pudding, which, confusingly, usually doesn't contain any plums
4:16
may have originally, but nowadays it's usually made with raisins or currants
4:21
Other food historians point to a recipe in a 14th century cookbook compiled by the master
4:25
cooks of King Richard II for Feige. That dish was made with ground almonds, wine, and figs, and some say it's an ancestor of
4:33
Figgy Pudding. At some point in all of this mess, British carolers started singing, now bring us some
4:38
Figgy Pudding to their wealthy neighbors around Christmas time. Might sound a little entitled, but you know what, go off, hungry carol singers
4:46
Yes, I have seen the movie Love Actually recently, why do you ask
4:49
The dish underwent a major change following Europe's colonization of the Americas. Sugar
4:54
was suddenly plentiful in the so-called old world. Check out our episode about some of
4:58
the most influential foods of all time to explore the history of that sweet but often destructive ingredient And candying fruit became a common preservation method Candied fruit found its way into plum pudding and all that added sugar turned the hearty
5:12
relatively nutritious cake into a decadent indulgence. And a popular one, too
5:18
In 1748, a Swede visiting England commented, "...the art of cooking as practiced by Englishmen does not extend much beyond roast beef and
5:26
plum pudding." Ooh, 18th century Swede burn! We know that fruitcake appeared on Christmas tables shortly after it spread through Europe
5:35
but we don't know exactly how the dish became associated with the holiday
5:39
In medieval times, labor-intensive desserts made from fine ingredients tended to be saved
5:43
for special occasions like holidays, so fruitcake's connection to Christmas makes sense
5:49
During the Victorian era, when much of the tradition and iconography around Christmas
5:53
was solidified in pop culture, the connection between fruitcake and Yuletide became even stronger
5:58
The Victorians loved baked fruitcake for some reason, and many of them couldn't wait until the holidays to enjoy it
6:05
At the wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, guests were served a fruitcake for dessert
6:09
a slice of which actually sold at auction in 2016 for 1,500 pounds
6:14
After Victoria, fruitcakes became the cake of choice for English weddings, though their popularity has waned over time
6:21
At least among the general public, that is. Fruitcake was on the menu at the royal weddings of Princess Diana and Prince Charles in 1981
6:27
and Kate Middleton and Prince William in 2011. So why do Victorians love fruitcake so much
6:34
It may have been the booze. They added alcohol to the recipe as a way to preserve the cake and boost its flavor
6:41
After the fresh cake has a chance to cool, bakers will wrap it in a cloth soaked in liquor and seal it in an airtight container
6:48
Alcohol kills bacteria as well as any yeast or mold that would otherwise grow on a fruitcake
6:52
and make it inedible. This process is called denaturation, and while we've mentioned it a couple times in other episodes of Food History
6:59
we've never really explained what it means for something to denature. Denaturation can occur for a number of reasons, including changes in temperature or pH
7:13
When you cook an egg, for example, and the white becomes opaque, it's because the proteins in the albumin are denaturing
7:19
When a protein denatures, the sequence of amino acids comprising the protein remains
7:24
the same, but its shape changes, sometimes irreversibly so. That changed shape can cause the protein to function differently, and in the case of a
7:32
living organism like bacteria it can actually kill the microbe When bacteria meets alcohol one of the things going on is the alcohol denaturing the proteins and stopping cellular function
7:44
Denaturation is one of the ways hand sanitizer works, actually, and it's how fruitcake can
7:48
last so long without going bad. Am I telling you to sanitize your groceries by rubbing fruitcake all over them
7:55
Sure, why not? It's been a weird year. When it comes to shelf life, it also helps that fruitcake is made with low-moisture ingredients
8:01
like nuts and dried fruit, giving bacteria less to feed on in the first place
8:06
Some people claim that fruitcake actually gets better with age. The fruit in fruitcake
8:10
contains bitter flavor compounds called tannins, which start to mellow out with time. As the
8:15
cake ages, the bitter flavors are toned down and other complex flavors become more pronounced
8:21
This incidentally is roughly the same process that happens when wine is aged, so if you
8:26
want to annoy your family around the holidays, just, I dunno, try pointing out the subtle
8:30
notes of wet earth and oak in your aunt's fruitcake. Or, you know, just drink a bottle
8:35
of liquefied fruitcake, too. That's probably going to work. I'm not going to stop you
8:38
But how long can a properly aged fruitcake last? According to the U.S. Department of
8:43
Agriculture, mail-order fruitcakes can stay good for up to six months in the fridge and
8:47
up to a year in the freezer. There are a number of variables in play, though, most notably
8:53
moisture content. We know that Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated Antarctic fruitcake at
8:57
least looked edible after chilling for almost 110 years, and there's evidence that some
9:02
fruit cakes can last even longer than that. One family from Michigan has held onto the same fruit cake for 142 years. It was baked
9:10
by Fidelia Ford in 1878, shortly before she passed away. Her husband decided to keep the
9:15
cake as a way to remember her, and decades later, the couple's descendants are still
9:19
honoring that wish. For the most part. In 2003, they brought the cake on The Tonight Show and allowed Jay Leno to sample a nibble
9:27
of it in front of a live studio audience. His review? It needs more time. That actually wasn't
9:33
the first time Fruitcake was memorably skewered by a host of The Tonight Show. Some people credit
9:38
Johnny Carson for giving it its bad reputation, famously joking that while Fruitcake seemed to be
9:44
a perennial gift, nobody ever actually ate them. It's true that Fruitcake may not be the most
9:50
popular dish on the Christmas table, but hey, that's no problem. You can always save the leftovers
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