A fruitcake found in Antarctica is "almost edible," despite being 106 years old.
Conservators from the Antarctic Heritage Trust found the century-old confection thought to be from the Robert Scott expedition on a shelf inside a Cape Adare hut where the expedition stayed, The New York Times reported. The shelter was built in 1899, and Scott’s expedition team stayed there in 2011 before attempting to return to base camp in 1912.
“Fruitcake was a popular item in English society at the time, and it remains popular today,” Conservation Manager Lizzie Meek told National Geographic. “Living and working in Antarctica tends to lead to a craving for high-fat, high-sugar food, and fruitcake fits the bill nicely, not to mention going very well with a cup of tea.”
Although the tin in which the fruitcake was kept had been badly deteriorated, the fruitcake itself was “almost edible,” with just a bit of a rancid butter smell, the conservators said, the Times reported.
The conservators did not attempt to eat the fruitcake, but preserved it and plan to return it and about 1,600 other artifacts to their original places in the hut after it is restored so that other explorers might find them, the Times reported.
The site is part of an Antarctic Specially Protected Area, and the hut and other buildings are the only examples remaining of human beings’ first buildings on any continent, the Times reported.
Twitter had decidedly mixed views on fruitcake.
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