Fruitcakes are a vacation deal with many individuals love — and lots of extra, it appears, like to hate. Stale jokes apart, although, the fruitcake has an extended historical past that even predates Christmas itself.
It’s a meals merchandise that has withstood the take a look at of time, performed an essential position in a number of cultures and comes with an astonishing sell-by date. and Georgia performs a giant half in making the enduring vacation treats.
Listed below are 4 belongings you in all probability don’t learn about fruitcake:
Fairly a shelf life
In accordance with Psychological Floss, fruitcake has fairly the shelf life. The tasty vacation deal with can age 25 years and nonetheless be loved, so long as it’s saved in an hermetic container.
In a 1983 New York Instances column, Russell Baker claimed to personal an infinite fruitcake as soon as gifted to President George Washington by a relative. After Washington allegedly refused the present, because it was “unseemly for Presidents to just accept items weighing greater than 80 kilos,” Baker’s family allegedly collect every vacation to eat a small portion of the large cake — even to at the present time.
Blame it on the Romans
The origin of the fashionable fruitcake may be traced again to historical Rome, Culinary Brokers reported. Historical Romans baked desserts referred to as satura — fruitcake’s great-, great-grandfather — with pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, raisins, barley mash and honeyed wine. The nutritious and long-lasting deal with was generally used as a discipline ration for Roman troops.
After the autumn of Rome, completely different interpretations of the fruitcake started showing throughout Italy, Germany and Britain.
Fruitcake State? Georgia
Based in 1910, Georgia’s Claxton Bakery has a wealthy historical past of constructing tasty seasonal treats. Within the bakery’s first 12 months of mass manufacturing, someday across the mid-Nineteen Forties, the corporate produced 45,000 kilos of fruitcake. The merchandise stays a staple favourite on the iconic eatery.
The Trappist monks on the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia, have their very own lengthy fruitcake custom. Like most Trappists, the brothers earn their revenue by gross sales of their present retailer, together with their extremely common fruitcake.
“Monk’s Fruitcakes are made by hand in our monastery kitchen utilizing solely the best elements,” the monastery’s web site stated. “The result’s a moist, Southern-style cake filled with beneficiant parts of pecans, pineapple, raisins, dates and cherries. And, as a ultimate crowning contact, Father Augustine ages his desserts with peach brandy and sherry to provide them their wealthy, unforgettable taste.”
The fruitcakes at Roswell’s Marilyn’s Gluten Free Gourmand include a scrumptious historical past of their very own. Recognized with a gluten intolerance in 2007, as reported by The Atlanta Journal-Structure, founder Marilyn Santulli made it her mission to craft tasty gluten-free treats. It began with an particularly artful gluten-free fruitcake recipe. Now her merchandise are bought all through regional Entire Meals and Kroger places, in addition to Georgia’s Piece of Cake, Alon’s Bakery and Mercier Orchards.
Sixties’ area rations
Whereas the unique fruitcake was used to gas Rome’s troopers on their lengthy campaigns, the fashionable fruitcake was as soon as used to feed individuals even farther from house. Throughout the Sixties area race, fruitcake was a staple ration supplied to astronauts — together with on the Apollo 11 mission — as a consequence of its shelf life, vitamins and the truth that it didn’t require refrigeration or cooking.
In accordance with Collin Avenue Bakery, the vacation deal with even made it onto the Apollo 17 moon mission.
