I mean, aside from booze-mummified fruitcake made when the Beatles were on stage.

It is now that nuggets of desiccated fruit pop up more frequently in all manner of dishes.

They add color and sweetness to desserts, muffins and quick breads. In savory recipes, dried fruit does that and more: It provides depth of flavor by balancing acidity, spiciness and saltiness.

Year-in and year-out, dried fruit can perform these functions, so why does it surge into the consciousness of cooks when winter winds blow?

And why did so many of us receive as a holiday gift an elaborate basket of glossy specimens, laid out as though they were jewels?

Both situations are anachronisms from times when dried fruit stood in for fresh.

For centuries, mankind squirreled away part of the harvest bounty to provide sustenance and valuable vitamins when there was no local crop. Amateur food technologists discovered early on that one effective way to keep fruit from spoiling quickly is to remove much of its water content.

The necessity for dried fruit waned with the paving of America and vehicle engineering advances that accompanied highway expansion in the mid-1900s. At the same time, the use of refrigerated trailers became widespread, reducing even more the need to sock away dried provisions. And, of course, air transportation enabled even tropical fruit to be shipped everywhere in the United States year round.

Still, the vestigial winter custom of eating and giving dried fruit lingers.

This is not a bad thing.

A recent study by the University of Scranton makes a case for incorporating dried fruits into everyone's diet. It found that the dried bounty - especially figs - are a superior source of phenol antioxidants, which protect the heart, liver and other organs. They also provide phosphorus and have three times the calcium of other fruit.

Prunes contain lots of potassium, and dried cranberries fight urinary tract infections. Yellow dried fruits - peaches, mango, and apricots - are loaded with beta-carotene. Raisins have been found to lower cholesterol and contain fiber, which helps to move food through the colon faster, limiting the time cancer-causing agents can linger there.

Yet, dried fruit is not without its drawbacks at any time of year.