Comfort food.

Inka said:
No, definitely custard and it was warm. Butterscotch Instant Whip was my favourite.
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I would guess it was normal yellow custard plus red food colouring.
 
Inka said:
Yes, pineapple crumble was a rare treat. If we saw it was a yellowish fruit crumble when we were queuing up, we’d hope it was pineapple crumble, but it was usually apple. We had rhubarb crumble too, and stewed rhubarb and custard (not very popular). Another unpopular dessert was greengages. They were cold stewed green plum things and they were so sharp they’d make your eyes water! We used to dare each other to eat one!
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That reminds me, we had greengage pie with custard. The pastry was thick and quite short and quite sweet (like shortcake), so it took the edge off the tartness of the stewed greengages, which just gave it a bit of bite.... I have always liked the combination of sweet and tart flavours.

I have never managed to find greengages in the supermarkets and eventually someone bought me a greengage tree because I mentioned that I loved that dessert, but sadly the tree was really prone to lots of pests like aphids and didn't do well at all and I think I got about 3 fruits off it which were all scabby and poor, so I gave up on it. I like to grow things which do well in my garden, not things that have to be namby-pambied!
I have a feeling the pink custard at my school was pink coloured sweet white sauce (ie butter?marg, sugar, cornflour and milk rather than actual custard which is obviously made with dried eggs in the form of Bird's custard powder, made with milk.
I wasn't a fan of the rice pudding or tapioca or sago/semolina puddings as the jam was always the cheapest bought, mixed fruit jam that was horrid compared to the homemade jam we always had at home, and the pudding was naff without jam.... but naff with naff jam too.
Also, don't forget spotted dick with custard which was a school dinner favourite.
 
rebrascora said:
That reminds me, we had greengage pie with custard. The pastry was thick and quite short and quite sweet (like shortcake), so it took the edge off the tartness of the stewed greengages, which just gave it a bit of bite.... I have always liked the combination of sweet and tart flavours.

I have never managed to find greengages in the supermarkets and eventually someone bought me a greengage tree because I mentioned that I loved that dessert, but sadly the tree was really prone to lots of pests like aphids and didn't do well at all and I think I got about 3 fruits off it which were all scabby and poor, so I gave up on it. I like to grow things which do well in my garden, not things that have to be namby-pambied!
I have a feeling the pink custard at my school was pink coloured sweet white sauce (ie butter?marg, sugar, cornflour and milk rather than actual custard which is obviously made with dried eggs in the form of Bird's custard powder, made with milk.
I wasn't a fan of the rice pudding or tapioca or sago/semolina puddings as the jam was always the cheapest bought, mixed fruit jam that was horrid compared to the homemade jam we always had at home, and the pudding was naff without jam.... but naff with naff jam too.
Also, don't forget spotted dick with custard which was a school dinner favourite.
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Custard from Bird's custard powder doesn't contain eggs at all - I think it was developed for someone with an allergy to eggs. Just maize starch ie cornflour, colouring and flavouring.
 
rebrascora said:
That reminds me, we had greengage pie with custard. The pastry was thick and quite short and quite sweet (like shortcake), so it took the edge off the tartness of the stewed greengages, which just gave it a bit of bite.... I have always liked the combination of sweet and tart flavours.

I have never managed to find greengages in the supermarkets and eventually someone bought me a greengage tree because I mentioned that I loved that dessert, but sadly the tree was really prone to lots of pests like aphids and didn't do well at all and I think I got about 3 fruits off it which were all scabby and poor, so I gave up on it. I like to grow things which do well in my garden, not things that have to be namby-pambied!
I have a feeling the pink custard at my school was pink coloured sweet white sauce (ie butter?marg, sugar, cornflour and milk rather than actual custard which is obviously made with dried eggs in the form of Bird's custard powder, made with milk.
I wasn't a fan of the rice pudding or tapioca or sago/semolina puddings as the jam was always the cheapest bought, mixed fruit jam that was horrid compared to the homemade jam we always had at home, and the pudding was naff without jam.... but naff with naff jam too.
Also, don't forget spotted dick with custard which was a
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Oh wow..greengage pie..now that takes me back to school dinners when I was a child.I love it with lashings of Bird's custard...it was delicious.
 
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Thanks @rebrascora ! Glad you remember the pink custard too!
The greengages would have been better with some pastry, for sure. All we had was custard to dilute the cheek-sucking tartness. The ultimate dare was, “Eat a greengage - without any custard!”

I’ve never had them as an adult. Perhaps I’d find them ok now. I always think the name sounds like they should be nice. I just wasn’t prepared for the sourness 😱
 
My favourite was bilberry pie. Bilberries were a small fruit, a wild form of blueberries with quite a strong flavour and intensely purple/black so you ended up with a purple tongue. They grew on heath land and as kids we used to go out and pick them, trouble was you needed a lot for a pie but we knew the best places.
 
Leadinglights said:
My favourite was bilberry pie. Bilberries were a small fruit, a wild form of blueberries with quite a strong flavour and intensely purple/black so you ended up with a purple tongue. They grew on heath land and as kids we used to go out and pick them, trouble was you needed a lot for a pie but we knew the best places.
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Absolutely adored bilberry pie and I was just riding through the woods the other day and looking at the bilberry plants growing under the pine trees and I think there were still a few berries left on them and I was reminiscing about the heavenly bilberry pie my Mam used to make.
You could also buy them in large jars which I think came from Poland, if you didn't have the opportunity to go somewhere to pick them yourself. Far superior to blueberries in flavour, but fiddly and time consuming to pick with them being so small.
A bit like the wild version of other fruits, like blackberries and strawberries, the cultivated varieties seem to sacrifice flavour for size and of course productivity, but sometimes small really is best.
 
Can I be a touch controversial? You see, I can see food as a fuel, I can see it as a need, I can see it as interesting, I can see it as a challenge to my taste buds, I can see it as something to make but I cannot see it as a comfort.

Maybe it is my age... My early life was spent in what would now be described as poverty where essentially you ate what you grew and both my mother and nan were competent cooks. I have always had a pathological hatred of advertising, especially when the adverts tell such a tiny part of the story in order to get you to consume stuff you do not need.

Am I alone?
 
Docb said:
Can I be a touch controversial? You see, I can see food as a fuel, I can see it as a need, I can see it as interesting, I can see it as a challenge to my taste buds, I can see it as something to make but I cannot see it as a comfort.

Maybe it is my age... My early life was spent in what would now be described as poverty where essentially you ate what you grew and both my mother and nan were competent cooks. I have always had a pathological hatred of advertising, especially when the adverts tell such a tiny part of the story in order to get you to consume stuff you do not need.

Am I alone?
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No you are not, anxiety, stress or something upsetting I am more likely NOT to eat than go to food whereas other turn to food.
 
I never had a greengage as a school pudding - but I've certainly been known to buy myself a kilo from a market or shop whilst we've been in France - just labelled 'prunes' same as the rest of the plums they happen to have. Lovely, fresh, soft and sweet, same as the fresh apricots, plus when daughter, son in law and kids went fishing to a lake they'd visited many times, we visited them for the day in our motorhome and their peg was 'The Orchard' so all sorts of fruit trees so I picked myself a few, and sat eating them only to be told by grandson 'Dads told us not to eat those grandma, cos he didn't think they were ripe' - mmmm, their mum can't bear the texture of any sort of plum in her mouth so certainly doesn't bring them in their house! Hence her husband and kids would rarely be exposed to any such things.

The (Polish) bilberries came in large glass jars - twice the size of a normal jamjar which then were normally 1 pound jars, so I daresay they were 1 kilo jars. Lovely!
 
stephenS50 said:
Yum..yum..butterscotch angel delight....one of the best puddings ever created I haven't eaten it for donkeys years.
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That was my fav flavour angel delight, delicious.

As a treat mother would buy a Birds Trifle, fav part of that was custard.

All food brings comfort but maybe that's because I like my food, always look forward to next meal even if it's something I eat most days, porridge for example.

Brought up on meals like mince n tatties so meals like that always brings back happy memories of a carefree time in life.
 
nonethewiser said:
That was my fav flavour angel delight, delicious.

As a treat mother would buy a Birds Trifle, fav part of that was custard.

All food brings comfort but maybe that's because I like my food, always look forward to next meal even if it's something I eat most days, porridge for example.

Brought up on meals like mince n tatties so meals like that always brings back happy memories of a carefree time in life.
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Oh my...yet another childhood memory...Birds Trifle. And I totally agree @nonethewiser the best part of a Bird's Trifle was the custard. I am seriously loving this thread..it's bringing back some great childhood memories.
 
nonethewiser said:
That was my fav flavour angel delight, delicious.

As a treat mother would buy a Birds Trifle, fav part of that was custard.

All food brings comfort but maybe that's because I like my food, always look forward to next meal even if it's something I eat most days, porridge for example.

Brought up on meals like mince n tatties so meals like that always brings back happy memories of a carefree time in life.
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It's strange how butterscotch always seemed to be kids' favourite flavour! I think it's crucial that we enjoy our regular ('healthy') meals, or else we'll be tempted to snack on 'unhealthy' foods. I have a big bowl of muesli for breakfast: it fills me up and I enjoy it.

I've moved to Scotland for family reasons and a member of my partner's family buys me an 'Oor Wullie' annual each Christmas, to help me learn the language and culture. Wullie loves "mince n tatties".
 
stephenS50 said:
Oh my...yet another childhood memory...Birds Trifle. And I totally agree @nonethewiser the best part of a Bird's Trifle was the custard. I am seriously loving this thread..it's bringing back some great childhood memories.
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Oh no: not more custard 😱 . I've always hated it - just like I hate rhubarb. My partner sometimes threatens to make rhubarb crumble and custard 😳
 
CliffH said:
Oh no: not more custard 😱 . I've always hated it - just like I hate rhubarb. My partner sometimes threatens to make rhubarb crumble and custard 😳
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We have the same thing with ratatouille, I love it OH hates it. When he was in hospital for a couple of weeks I made a huge pot and had it for several days on the trot. I did feel a bit like a traitor.
 
Leadinglights said:
We have the same thing with ratatouille, I love it OH hates it. When he was in hospital for a couple of weeks I made a huge pot and had it for several days on the trot. I did feel a bit like a traitor.
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Sounds reasonable to me! I like lamb but my partner doesn't, so I'll tend to choose that in restaurants 🙂
 
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