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.
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