A couple of days ago a friend came by and delivered us a fruitcake.  We talked a little about the process  and she said this is something she said that she has been doing for nearly 60 years.  I think it was last year, I happened to catch a segment on TV on how to make a fruitcake and my opinion and appreciation changed immediately.

Adjectives that I think most people apply to fruitcake are cheap, tacky, passé or dare I say thoughtless.  I have to say that I held that opinion as well.  The reason being is that my impression of fruitcake was that someone bought a couple $5 processed fruitcake to reciprocate as hostess gifts or ‘whoops, I forgot about your family’ enjoy this crappy fruitcake.

With a real fruitcake, nothing could actually be farther from the truth.  This is an art that takes a lot of effort and planning.  I suppose that is where the breakdown starts.  I think about mole for instance.  Good mole is incredible, bad mole is almost inedible.  It all has to do with the process.

Today, most people and restaurants make mole from a base.  That starter includes poor ingredients and substitutes like hydrogenated oils replacing lard and thickened with chemical agents.  This leaves a semi-sweet, pasty and lifeless sauce that kind of makes me regret the upcoming meal when I smell it.

But, enough with mole lets get back to fruitcake.  How did we get here?  The planning, effort and cost is how.  A proper fruitcake would be soaked in Rum 30-60 days.  That means that it needs to being made around Halloween.  When you combine a corn syrup drizzled concoction of a ‘store-bought’ fruitcake with peoples lack of dedication to the finer points of cooking our only context is a sticky, bland uninspiring mass.

We have a society that doesn’t know fruitcake because of our lifestyle and it is easy to see why we can’t appreciate it.  My wife and I are old soles.  As we were talking to our friend yesterday, she offered to give me the recipe.  I immediately jumped at the chance.  Ultimately, I don’t care to change the world and if you aren’t willing to try then fine, more for me.  But, the tradition seems appealing to me so I think it is something I want to try next year.

End Your Programming Routine: This is the definition of ‘End Your Programming’.  Tradition, culture, effort and craft combine into something special, wonderful and counter to popular belief.  I think it is an honor to learn from someone that has persevered through the opinion of fruitcake to keep on doing what you believe.