Fruitcake, Fermentation by Another Name
15 Dec
We never eat fruitcake because it has rum,
And one little slice puts a man on the bum.
Oh, can you imagine the pitiful plight
Of a man eating fruitcake until he gets tight?
A man who eats fruitcake lives a terrible life.
He`s mean to his children and beats on his wife.
A man who eats fruitcake dies a terrible death,
With the odor of raisins and rum on his breath!
“Away with Rum,” Temperance Union (Aussie Band)
Christmas cakes and fruitcakes, as well as the fruited breads so widespread throughout England, benefitted from cooks’ hard-earned knowledge about the fermentation process. The breads mated with yeast and rose to great heights.
But the most ingenious technique came with pouring alcohol over fruitcakes, thereby assisting in the preservation of those door-stoppers so loathed by most modern eaters. A form of pickling, actually. But, as you will see below, somehow fruitcake got off track here in the United States when Betty Crocker stepped into the kitchen.
Copyright Mike Lane, 2007.
There’s no question about the noble origins of the American fruitcake tradition. English to the core.
The following list of Tea Breads/Spice Breads comes from Fermented Foods of the World: A Dictionary and a Guide, by Geoffery Campbell-Platt, a book apparently worth its weight in gold, literally. (It’s selling for over US $500.00 right now.) A newer and more-up-to-date version is due out TODAY, how coincidental (!), Fermented Foods and Beverages of the World, CRC Press, by Jyoti Prakash Tamang, for the more palatable sum of US $160.00.
Bara Brith (heavily fruited) – Wales, UK
Bun Loaf (no fruit, but rich in eggs) – Britain; West Indies
Currant Bread (with currants – Britain)
Devonshire Dough Cake (heavily fruited – Devon, Britain)
Dough Cake – (with currants, sultanas, and mixed citrus peel – W. England)
Fruit Bread – U.K.
Gauche – (rich in fruit, Channel islands, U.K.)
Guernsey Gauche (with currants and mixed citrus peel – Channel Islands, U.K.)
Huffler (without fruit – Essex, England)
Jersey gauche (similar to Guernsey Gauche – Channel Islands, U.K.)
Kentish Huffkin (no fruit – Kent, England)
Lardy Cake (fatty, with fruit and spice – England)
Lincolnshire Plum Loaf (with currants – Lincolnshire, England)
Malt Bread (with added malt and currants – U.K.)
Raisin Bread (with raisins – U.K.)
Saffron Bread (plaited, colored yellow with saffron, covered with almonds – Sweden; Cornwall, England)
Spice Bread (Yorkshire, England)
Sultana Bread (with sultanas – U.K.)
Walnut and Raisin Bread (with chopped walnuts and raisins – U.K.)
For more fruitcakes, see my previous post, Nutty as a Fruitcake.
© 2009 C. Bertelsen
Tags: English Cooking, Cakes, Christmas, Fermentation, Fruitcakes, Breads
both the list of fruit cakes and the photos have literally made my mouth water – this is the kind of food i crave for, things i remember from my years in nz, but they are not available where i now live. i have always promised myself that one day, i’ll bake a christmas cake, even though i know that only i will be eating it – it simply isnt within the taste spectrum of what is traditionally viewed as ‘cake’ in greece
In Greece, the practice of making sweet breads with currants, nuts and honey can be traced back to 6th century B.C. and has survived to this day. However these breads never were transformed into cakes.The first Greek cookbooks and women’s magazines agree that fruitcake is a British specialty, ‘an English cake, which almost always uses greek currants and sultanas’. And ‘since it is high calorie cake, the fruitcake is ideal food for school children, workers and poor people. However when pouring alcohol over it, i not considered appropriate dessert for women and delicate gentlemen’.
P.S. I have an award for you on my blog. If you like pass it along to seven other bloggers. ;)
Thank you for the comments on fruitcake and for the award, Mariana! This is amazing, because just today I am listing 12 food bloggers that make my days — and you’re one of them. The universe at work, so to speak …
I liked reading about fruitcake history, but was especially excited to learn new lyrics to “Away, Away with rum by gum.” I checked Youtube for even more, and have embedded my favorite version on my own blog post — thank you for the inspiration!
maefood.blogspot.com
Hi Cynthia, I grabbed this fabulous link and included it on my list. Thanks again for the GREAT idea. As usual, I got a wee bit carried away:)
Lovely post, Louise, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about some of your new and old friends. Thanks SO much for mentioning “Gherkins & Tomatoes” in such positive terms. Until tomorrow. And guess what, I’m snowed in, too. Getting a lot done, too!
I followed Louise here, after she mentioned that you’re working on a project about early Virginian food history. Well, I am a proud Virginian, love history and food, so…
Oh – and to date, I’ve only eaten my mother inlaw’s fruit cake, but it’s so wonderful that I beg for one every Christmas and keep it in the freezer, carving off a slice here and there, trying to make it last as long as possible. I’ve seen at least two recipes this year I’d consider trying, but I haven’t taken the plunge yet.
What part of Virginia is your family from? When did they arrive? I’m really interested in finding manuscript cookbooks, diaries, letters, etc., anything where people might mention food. Some of my paternal grandmother’s family settled in Jamestown in the 1630s, but they then went to North Carolina, then Texas, and ended up in Arizona.