Can anything be nuttier than a fruit cake? Try the Pentagon's recipe for making one. MIL-F-14499F, the Defense Department's specifications for holiday fruitcake for its 2.2 million servicemen and-women, consumes 18 pages vs. the two-thirds of a page for standard dark fruitcake in the classic Joy of Cooking. Even for the organization that created 22 pages of specs for a "trap, mouse," and 16 pages for a "whistle, plastic," the recipe for "fruitcake, canned," represents a point, high.
The ingredients . . . er, components, are described in Pentagonese worthy of Star Wars. Vanilla flavoring is called for "in such quantities...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
