The common-or-garden fruitcake has stood the take a look at of time—each culturally and scientifically. One of many earliest references to the dessert dates to the Historical Romans, who used it like an vitality bar and crammed it with pomegranate seeds, raisins, honey and wine. Troopers in World Struggle I additionally fancied a model of the baked deal with: wrapped in wax paper, this small fruitcake supplied some morsel of vitamins when many different meals would spoil throughout lengthy stretches in barren battle trenches.

These days fruitcakes are a vacation delicacy nonetheless prized for his or her long-lasting freshness. Based on the U.S. Division of Agriculture, these seemingly indestructible pastries sometimes stay fresh for six months within the pantry and as much as a 12 months when refrigerated. However anecdotally we all know that they’ll final for many years; a number of the oldest have been preserved for greater than a century. In 2017 a then 106-year-old fruitcake left behind by members of a 1910 Antarctic expedition was unearthed from one of many continent’s first buildings. And in 2019 the Detroit Information reported {that a} Michigan household treasured a then 141-year-old fruitcake as an heirloom. And you can theoretically nonetheless eat these century-old truffles with out hurt—if you will get previous the nauseating, rancid scent.

The key behind the lengthy shelf lifetime of the beloved (or typically despised) vacation deal with lies within the components and preparation. Scientific American spoke to meals scientists about what makes an edible merchandise seemingly indestructible and whether or not it’s a good suggestion to eat a fruitcake that has been saved up for years.

Sugar and alcohol create a hostile setting for microorganisms

One ingredient that bolsters fruitcake’s longevity is alcohol, says Bryan Quoc Le, a meals scientist and college analysis fellow at Pacific Lutheran College. Many basic house recipes contain soaking the cake in rum, brandy or bourbon—liquor that may add some taste however is usually used for its antimicrobial properties. Alcohol makes a fruitcake extra acidic, making a harsh setting for a lot of frequent foodborne microbes. Booze destroys the cells of many micro organism, mould spores and different potential pathogens that survive the baking course of or accumulate when meals is not noted at room temperature.

However although alcohol is frequent in conventional home made recipes, commercially ready fruitcakes not often include it, notes Benjamin Chapman, head of the agricultural and human sciences division at North Carolina State College. The shelf lifetime of an alcohol-free fruitcake is probably going shorter than one ready with spirits.

The fruit in a fruitcake is usually dried as a substitute of contemporary, which reduces moisture and creates this dessert’s notoriously dry texture. This, together with the excessive sugar content material, sucks up a lot of the water that micro organism have to survive. “Meals with low quantities of moisture, like fruitcakes and Twinkies, are proof against the expansion of microorganisms since you want a specific amount of moisture for spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms to develop,” Le explains. “For those who can do away with the moisture, you have got one thing that’s almost indestructible.” The dearth of water is one purpose why one unwrapped Twinkie dessert has lasted for at the very least 43 years regardless of having had a shelf lifetime of simply days when it was produced. Chapman additionally says commercially ready fruitcakes and Twinkies have antibacterial and antifungal preservatives to extend their shelf life.

A fruit cake’s dense texture stalls staleness

Fruitcakes have a popularity for being as heavy as a rock. However it’s partly because of this excessive density that they keep contemporary longer than breads and truffles with mild, fluffy textures, Le says.

The interaction between density and moisture influences how rapidly meals turn out to be stale. When bread is baked, water within the dough rearranges starch molecules from a inflexible construction to a disorganized one which helps to kind air pockets. Baked items made with wetter dough have extra air pockets, which create a smooth, mild texture. However the porousness additionally exposes extra starches to the skin air, which attracts out water and finally shuffles the starch molecules again right into a stable crystalline construction. The ensuing rigidity makes once-supple baked items stale and difficult to chew. Fruitcake’s denser texture permits far fewer air pockets to kind, defending extra of the starches from the air.

May you abdomen a 50-year-old fruitcake?

Like a fantastic wine, a well-made fruitcake can really get extra flavorful over time. Tannins ooze out of the dried fruit, chemically altering the cake’s composition to supply a fruity and spicy style. Some bakers advocate deliberately getting old fruitcakes for just a few weeks to months in a cool, darkish place to reinforce the style and texture. However these nice, complicated flavors solely final a few 12 months or two, Le says. That is due to oxidation, a course of whereby chemical reactions between the meals and oxygen transform unsaturated fatty acids into compounds referred to as lipid hydroperoxides. Additional breakdown of those compounds creates smaller molecules equivalent to aldehydes and ketones, which might create bitter or unpleasantly leatherlike flavors and aromas. “The chance that any of the fat in a [50-year-old] fruitcake aren’t oxidized or rancid is fairly low,” Chapman provides.

That mentioned, although a decades-old fruitcake would possibly style like a leather-based shoe, consuming it in all probability gained’t make you dangerously sick. Chapman says the dessert’s attribute resistance to pathogen development enormously reduces the danger of foodborne diseases from Escherichia coli or Salmonella micro organism—although folks would possibly turn out to be nauseous from the scent and taste. Whereas the 50-year-old dessert would in all probability style fairly horrible, he provides, “the fruitcake isn’t any much less protected now than the 12 months it was baked.”

Regardless of fruitcake’s well-preserved standing, it’s not all the time the most well-liked merchandise on the vacation dinner desk. The dessert has gained a popularity for being the reward nobody likes to get—however it may be the reward that retains giving. For those who obtain one this Christmas, know that you’ve got subsequent 12 months (and yearly after) to discreetly regift it.