This seems to be a popular subject today. Painting the top with ketchup adds a nice taste to the end product. Meatloaf that is, not fruitcake. I don't think there is anything that can make fruitcake taste good.
Mr. Deb

I like meatloaf with ketchup. If it is good meatloaf I will eat it without. I have only had fruitcake a couple of times. I like it.

My niece made safron bread for me this Christmas, haven't had it since mom died. As for fruitcake, well I agree about the liquor on top. Mom one time kept putting whiskey on top of her fruitcake and forgetting she had done it. Best fruitcake she ever made. Dad was afraid to smoke around it though. Bet it would have made a good log in the fireplace. My mother didn't partake of any alcohol and one time at my sisters she got into the watermellon that my brother in law had spiked, mom was funny that day. Next day she moped around not feeling good.

Meatloaf sounds yummy right now. Fruitcake with booze is edible. :)

But why would anyone ruin good booze by contaminating it with fruitcake?

Now Deb, you're starting to sound like you could be related to my husband, just kidding. My husband never met a candied fruit that he would even try, let alone tolerate. His father had poisoned his mind on the subject of candied fruit's being no good, so he tried to pass the favor onto our sons, with all of his negative comments. But, it did not work. Our boys don't love it, but they do tolerate it, and they will eat it, occasionally. Especially if the main ingredient in your fruit cake is sweetened condensed milk, it can't be all bad, but then you have to at least taste it, before you can declare it to be inedible, and my husband has never even tasted it because of the candied fruit and his father. Oh well, that's his loss. I would say that leaves more for me, but I have not made it in the last few years, since it would be mainly for me. That, and the fact that fruitcakes have been the butt of so many jokes over the years. Heavens, there is even the Fruitcake Lady on Jay Leno, but then she is nuttier than a fruitcake.

There is another fruitcake story in our family. My grandparents (my dad's parents) flat out did not drink any alcohol at all. When they came to our house for Christmas while I was growing up, they would eat everything, including my mom's fruitcake, that had been marinated twice a week since Thanksgiving, soaking up the bourbon. My grandpa loved my mom's fruitcake so much that he ate a lot of it, enough to become ever so slightly tipsy. It was pretty funny, especially knowing that my mom was trying so hard to keep a straight face. I don't remember my dad's ever saying anything about it. But I know that neither of them ever told my dad's parents the secret ingredient of her fruitcake. Her fruitcake was not dried out, by any means. :-)

Marianne...."Heavens, there is even the Fruitcake Lady on Jay Leno, but then she is nuttier than a fruitcake."

You can say that again. First time I watched her I nearly busted a gut laughing! However, I find much wisdom in her quips. Must be that I'm getting 'up there', too. Funny story of your paternal g-parents! LOL.

I actually like fruit cake. With or without the booze. You can send them all to me.

kj, I think they would make better chew bricks for the pups rather than be used as actual food.
Mr. Deb

They'd have to fight me for them!

I was a baker for about 15 years so I figured I could make a good fruitcake. There is no such animal!!! They're the same consistency fresh from the oven or 10 years old.
Mr. Deb

We had a fruitcake once; no living soul could eat the thing so we fed it to the dog. He promptly buried it!! It popped back up a few months later and just sat out in the backyard with nothing picking at it. Ants, mold, buzzards, not even bacteria would munch on it. Finally, a opossum carried it off one afternoon. But, a few days later we saw a dead opossum along side the road and always wondered if the fruitcake killed it!!!

I'm with you Mr. Deb; why waste good booze on a brick!!!

A brick would probably be a little more flavorful as well as more tender.

KJ--I like fruitcake too. My Auntie Lillian used to make one light
and one dark one that she sent to our family downstate. Later I had
a professor at the University of Toronto who gave me one each
Christmas until he died. It was superb. Today I'm going to an old
inn here in Toronto with a friend for tea. Some years the docents
make them as a fundraiser. Here's hoping. I will buy one if it's
available.

Oh yeah. I also like meat loaf. I think after all the talk about them
I'll try to get my husband to make one for Sunday dinner. Would
make good leftovers the rest of the week.

I like fruitcake and cannot determine what is so distasteful about them. I like all the comments about getting tipsy, etc. Some one must have spiked those fruitcakes just before eating to cause someone to become tipsy. Alcohol evaporates after a while.
Just the taste of the caramel or whatever in the whiskey/brandy. Maybe the alcohol causes a chemical change in the ingredients of the fruitcake?
Rare is the meatloaf that I really like. My mother made meatloaf and she added bread in the mix back during WWII when meat was rationed. I never did like it much so I added considerable quantities of ketchup.
Yesterday we drove along Lake Michigan along US2 going west. The lake was very rough with the spray flying off the white caps. When arriving on the beach it was snow and drifted across the highway in places. Very windy with gusts probably near 40 mph. (According to the weather report.)

If you haven't tried the fruitcakes from the Jampot, you should! They're fantastic!

Tom if you imediatly cover the fruitcake with foil the alcohol can't evaportate as fast as if you put it say into wax paper. Mom put the liquor on just before serving and had been adding it for some time. I understand what you are saying like flaming cheries the alcohol is burned off and just the tast is left on the fruit.

Yes, my mom did what was what Mikie's mom did: she stored it in heavy gauge aluminum foil, always covered with both foil and soaked in alcohol. It looked like it usually had small pools of liquid at the bottom. Back then, I tolerated bourbon somewhat, but I honestly liked her fruitcake better without the marinate then. (Think a child, ages up to 10.) Anyway, Mikie's right, it did not all evaporate. Sure, if you are cooking with alcohol, it burns off in a hurry. And, if you had it in waxed paper or something, it would evaporate with time. But, my mom was adding to it a couple of times a week, for a period of about a month. Needless to say, it was sliced in small pieces. It's just that Grandpa liked it so well that he ate a number of pieces of it at one sitting. That, and he never drank at all, so he had no built up tolerance for alcohol. I should add that if I were making it now, I would be soaking it in dark rum, not bourbon.

Yes, fruitcakes from the Jampot are really good. When we buy them the slices are thin and doled out carefully. Kind of wish I had one now.

I will have to try to purchase a fruitcake from The Jampot next year.
The one I purchased yesterday at one of the historical inns here in
Toronto has proved to be very tasty.

It looks like you might still be able to get them, mailorder, kosk:
http://www.societystjohn.com/jampot.jp

Thank you for the idea, guys. That traditional sourdough fruitcake looks awesome!

Thanks Marianne!

Don't think I'd spend $40 + shipping for any fruitcake. I can get one at the grocery store for $10 and be just as happy. And since I am the only one who eats it around here, a 3# one would last for a really long time. I don't need the booze in it either.
But then, I can buy Hershey's chocolate with almonds and be just as happy as having expensive truffels.

kj--$40 is too much for me too. The one I bought in Toronto was
$10 and very tasty.

And Hershey's with almonds taste much better than any truffle I've ever had, that's for sure.

I will second that, Deb and kj. As for the $40 fruitcake, I am sure it is wonderful, but that is too much for my consumption, even though I love SOME fruitcakes. I love GOOD fruitcake. And most fruitcake is not good fruitcake.

Actually, the Jampot store sells fruitcake by the slice during the summer months, so if you're in the area you can try them out for yourself for a much lower price.

And how much do they pay you per slice to try it??
Mr. Deb

You're bad Mr. Deb. I just finished having a yummy piece of my
Toronto fruitcake which was made using a historical recipe.

hey- Kosk-Will you share the recipe?

Isn't it mud and straw, mixed with ancient candied fruit? Oh wait, that's for decorative adobe. Almost the same, except the bricks don't have the spices.
Mr. Deb

Chili tonight was going to make it over the weekend but never got to. This time I am going to add bacon to the chili for an added flavor. Tim Ozanich my grandson is coming over today and I will take him to Wendy's and Tim Hortons for a late lunch. Him a donut and me a number four the Baconator. Got to plug up those arteries.

Chili sounds great, but I think we will wait a couple of days before we have it, when it cools down a bit from this heat wave. Bacon, now that is an interesting idea. I know that some chili recipes call for bulk sausage or sausage mixed with ground beef or beef stew-type meats. Have fun having lunch with your grandson, Mikie.

Mr. Deb, I think I'd rather eat a brick.

A little cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom and you'd have fruitcake!
Mr. Deb

KJ--The cake was made at the Montgomery Inn and the recipe
wasn't included. I'm looking forward to my last piece tomorrow.

Dang, was hoping to get a recipe. Thanks any way Kosk.
Mr.Deb- I am ignoring yours.LOL

I got two receipes from my aunt Virginia a couple years ago. They were Grandma Slattery'. Never got around to making them tho. Wasn't sure just exactly on the measurements she had written. I like a good fruitcake but the cheap one from Hostess recently was awful. May even have some in the back of my cupboard. I bought a small cake at the Jampot in 'o6 and I'd feel tipsy after a couple bites. But some of my friends know that I only have one alchoholic drink a year. So it doesn't take much to put ME down.

Here's my mom's best fruitcake recipe;

You'll need the following: a cup of water, a cup of sugar, four large eggs, two cups of dried fruit, a teaspoon of baking soda, a teaspoon of salt, a cup of brown sugar, lemon juice, nuts, and a bottle of whisky.



Sample the whisky to check for quality.

Take a large bowl. Check the whisky again. To be sure it is the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Repeat. Turn on the electric mixer, beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar and beat again. Make sure the whisky is still okay. Cry another tup. Turn off the mixer. Break two leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.



Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the whisky to check for tonsisticity. Next, sift two cups of salt. Or something. Who cares? Check the whisky. Now sift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Spoon. Of sugar or something. Whatever you can find.



Grease the oven. Turn the cake tin to 350 degrees. Throw the bowl out of the window, check the whisky again and go to bed.

And another culinary masterpiece is born!!

Thank you, thank you, no need for applause.

Oh, Boy! Still, it doesn't really help me actually MAKE one! But thanks Snowman. You put a smile on my face.

kj, I think fruitcake is the bakery equivalent of bouja, throw in whatever is handy and some dried out candied fruit and bake till solid.
Mr. Deb