106 Year Old Fruitcake

[mofederal]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...tarctica-looked-and-smelled-edible/569949001/






Researchers in Antarctica have discovered a tin of untouched Fruit Cake. It was found on Cape Adare, Antarctica. It was found in the continent's oldest building, built in 1899. The fruit cake was thought to have been left there by Robert F. Scott's 1911 Terra Nova Expedition. The tin container, was actually made of tin-plated iron alloy tin, was somewhat rusty when found. It held a paper covered Huntley & Palmers fruitcake. The cake was found to be in good shape. Actually calling it near edible. The researcher's said it felt and looked like a new fruitcake. According to Lizzie Meek, the Antarctic Heritage Trust said, "If you got quite close to it that you could smell that slightly off smell of butter that's gone wrong." She did say the fruitcake looked and smelled edible. Except that rancid butter thing. The company H & P were a brand that Scott used during this time. It was brought along as a high energy food. The extreme cold is credited with it's preservation. About 1,500 objects were recovered from two huts.. I guess no animal testing was done on the fruitcake.

 

[mofederal]

 

[mofederal]

The fruitcake still in the wrapper.

 

[nitrofd]

Of all things to survive,

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

That is awesome! Heard about a family who swapped the same fruitcake back and forth as a gift for years and years- this beats it!

There are people out there who eat these things- ancient food! They document it- have followers, and nothing is too old. A meal of Civil War hard tack was filmed? He said it tasted like mothballs and, I think, old library books.

 

[donna]

This is neat. I bet it is hard as a rock and stale.

 

[nitrofd]

This is neat. I bet it is hard as a rock and stale.

Would you be brave enough to try a piece?.

 

[donna]

No I would not be brave enough.

 

[nitrofd]

No I would not be brave enough.

 

[connecticut yankee]

My in-law from Australia years ago would mail one of her bombshell rum cakes to us every Christmas. It was the size of a loaf of bread, but must have weighed about 10 pounds. The rum would drip out of the package onto your hands when you opened the box up. In fact, I had a hangover for two days just looking at the blasted thing!

 

[redbob]

This just confirms something that I have always suspected, that cockroaches and fruitcakes will be here long after we are gone.

 

[Patrick H]

I knew it! I just KNEW IT! I've long had a theory that there are only about a dozen fruitcakes on the planet, and that people just keep re-gifting them year after year after year. No one actually eats them. Now a thirteenth has been found. If any of you receive a fruitcake as a gift this Christmas season, compare it with the photos above to see if you received THIS ONE!

 

[mofederal]

According to the story, the fruitcake was soft and spongy. Who knows, I thought this was a good story. They are going to preserve this the museum planned for the huts. In the 90's they found a WWII British tank in Normandy. It was buried. They dug it out, and found ration cans. Bully beef in cans. They opened it looked fine, but the grease had turned rancid. They fed it to a cat. The cat ate it, and it didn't hurt it at all. For those truly bored a guy on YouTube opens WWII and earlier rations and eats what is possible, smokes the cigarettes. He did say he had a video of him eating a Civil War Hardtack. Now that was weird.

 

[donna]

Surprising it was soft an spongy. It is a good story. Thanks for posting.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

I discovered the world's oldest plum pudding while watching the Christmas episode of the British Baking Show Masterclass - http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-15537655 This one is a 117 years old this year, the article I found is from 2011.

Seems British baked goods hold up to the test time of time

 

[JOHN42768]

Just goes to really show how good fruitcake is in fact. More durable then the tin container. Since it had been frozen solid < i would imagine still palatable.

 

[TinCan]

Remembering the fact that poor Scott and his men perished I'd be a little leery of that fruitcake.

 

[Michael W.]

I would be brave enough to sample it, except for the rancid butter part.....

 

[Blessmag]

hardtack with fruit

 

[lelliott19]

Would you be brave enough to try a piece?.

I would be brave enough to sample it, except for the rancid butter part.....

Great story @mofederal

Ahhhh come on guys. Where's your sense of adventure? A friend of mine once said "adventure = anything in which the outcome is unknown."
I once ate a container of yogurt that was expired by several months. Couldn't be any worse that that. At least the fruitcake was frozen. And what's a little rancid butter? Don't they purposefully put rancid butter in buttermilk?