In Defense of Fruitcake

by Sean Elder, Posted Dec 9th 2009 @ 1:00PM

Generous Fruitcake. Photo: Beekman 1802.

The first of many seasonal catalogues from Saks Fifth Avenue just arrived at my house. There are only three words of text on the cover: Better Than Fruitcake.

And so it begins, the ritual insults of the gift that time forgot, the humble yet seemingly inedible confection called fruitcake.

There are gag fruitcakes like this inflatable one ("The fruitcake they'll actually want to get!") and corny fruitcake jokes -- there's even a Society for the Preservation and Protection of Fruitcake.

But when did fruitcake become the punch line to a hundred jokes (and not Borscht Belt stuff either: a Jewish friend of mine assures me that fruitcake is strictly for the goyim)?

Food historians suggest that fruitcake -- any cake in which dried fruits and nuts do battle with the batter -- is older than Moses. Ancient Egyptians entombed fruitcake, while Romans carried it into battle, probably for the same reason: Fruitcake is built to last, and did, well into medieval times.

It was in the relatively recent 18th century (yesterday in fruitcake time) that fruitcake achieved totemic status. It was then that nut-harvesting farmers collected fruits and nuts in a cakelike substance to save for the next harvest -- as a sort of good-luck charm if you will.

Well, there's your problem right there: Any cake that is not to be eaten doesn't deserve to be categorized as food. This puts fruitcake in the same category as plastic fruit and Jell-O molds, which is perhaps why giving someone a fruitcake is deemed an insult in some circles.

America's love/hate affair with fruitcake began in the early part of the 20th century when the first mail-order fruitcakes became fashionable gifts for a dispersed population. Perhaps it was meant to invoke a kind of homey nostalgia; Truman Capote waxed rhapsodic about it in "A Christmas Memory" when he recalled an aged relative, her breath smoking the windowpane, exclaiming, "Oh my! It's fruitcake weather?" Doesn't it make you want to go home?

Well, no. Somewhere along the line, fruitcake became the equivalent of the tie on Father's Day, a gift that said the giver didn't care enough to think about what to send. And like any other food, or food-like product, it was often mass-produced, using fruits barely discernible as such, and packed into cans as heavy as landmines.

Of course there are artisanal alternatives, hand-crafted by grannies and monks. Isabelle of Mondo Fruitcake began her site in defense of the foodstuff: "Since I was a little girl I've always liked fruitcake," she writes, "a specific fruitcake -- the fruitcake of the Gethsemani monks in Trappist, Ky. I've grown up with it and even now look forward to getting one as a gift from my mom every Christmas." Each year the site rates the best fruitcakes out there (with Gethsemani and Collin Street Bakery leading the pack) and you can still find gourmet recipes online. Yes, the authors of many of those recipes are no longer with us -- but the fruit (and nuts) of their labors lives on.

Sean Elder's writing has appeared in Gourmet, Food & Wine, the New York Times Magazine and numerous other publications. Visit him at seanelder.com. Editor's note - Slashfood contributor Dr. Brent Ridge makes the best artisanal fruitcake (pictured above) we've ever tasted. Buy it online at Beekman1802.com.

Filed Under: Edible Gifts, Holidays, Food History
Tags: beekman 1802, christmas, edible gifts, featured, fruitcake, fruitcake jokes, fruitcake recipe

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Reader comments (Page 3 of 3)

12-13-2009 @8:08PM Oakcrone said... I love fruitcake. While my dad was still alive, the 2 of us made a fruitcake every year and just about drove my mom nuts for messing up her kitchen. We found a recipe we like and made a few modifications. It was made just after Thanksgiving and wrapped in rum soaked cheesecloth and allowed to age until Christmas. My dad passed in 1977 and I haven't made a fruitcake since then.
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12-13-2009 @8:43PM benji said... Love german stollen instead of fruitcake
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12-13-2009 @10:17PM millhousepens said... A slice of good fruitcake slathered with cream cheese; food of the gods!!!
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12-14-2009 @12:25AM Joel Lafargue said... Carol3, you are one sick bitch.
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12-27-2009 @8:07PM B. Ishler said... I make fruitcake with dried fruit which is soaked overnight in "adult beverage". My family really likes it. I think that candied fruit is what made people not like fruit cake.
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12-27-2009 @10:03PM Eunice said... I always love fruitcake. Back home in our country, my mom used to make fruit cake every christmas.On the 24th of Dec. she started cooking and baking for our noche buena(christmas eve)and the next day, christmas day, it is our tradition grand children,godchildren,nephew,nieces would come to the house get their christmas gifts(cash,candies,goodies). I remember my mom would serve them fruitcakes, taste a little bit and then ignore it.. Fruitcakes in our country is not a household name. My family is familiar with fruit cake because my dad was a retired U.S. navy and my mom used to work with a USmilitary family (stationed at a US Military Base).
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