We English people love our rich fruity Christmas food, unlike most Americans according to last week’s Austin Chronicle. Here’s what Mick Vann says about fruitcake:
Nowhere in the world do fruitcakes suffer the abuse that they receive here in the States. They are received as gifts from well-meaning friends then thrown away or regifted. Fruit cakes are used as doorstops, bookends, etc. For the last 13 years, Manitou Springs, Colo., has held its annual Great Fruitcake Toss, “encouraging the use of recycled fruitcakes”; if you don’t have one of your own, you can rent one for 25 cents. The current record is held by a group of Boeing engineers who last year built the Omega 380, a bicycle-powered compressed-air cannon that shot a 2-pound loaf of fruitcake 1,420 feet downrange.
Yes, bad fruitcake really is horrible, and when a food gets a bad reputation it becomes much harder (a) to get hold of a good version, and (b) to persuade people to try your good version. So I’m not sure whether people are ready to taste our Christmas cake yet, never mind buy one (so much fruit, brandy, time and love goes into a proper, dark English Christmas cake- it’s not a choc-chip cookie!) but we will offer some slices soon and see what you folks think.
On the “ageing” controversy, I feel obliged to point out that a proper, dark fruitcake drenched in good French brandy every other day for several weeks is a very different thing than an old forgotten dried-out lump of sadness. Just sayin’…
And here is the Chronicle on micemeat, which I was amazed to learn does actually have a tradition in the United States, just not a very popular one again:
Without a doubt, aversion to the idea of meat in a dessert is the cause of mincemeat’s decline. Modern-day Americans think that mincemeat “sounds gross.” Unless strong-armed into trying it, most Americans will studiously avoid it (even meat-free versions), simply because the name has the word “meat” in it.
Kate Thornberry actually got her recipe from a 1904 book full of Victorian “monstrosities” (a lot of Victorian food was gross in more than just sound), while over there in the U of K, we carried on making this stuff and serving it in the holidays all those years! I think we have also been perfecting its use during that century, though, resulting in the small delectable treats with the buttery pastry of my post below. But as so few farmers’ market customers were even willing to taste it- a free mince pie this Saturday (December 6th) for anyone who mentions this blog!