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| Janet |
Hi, Just to let you know your site was shown on morning Canadian TV here in Vancouver today Feb 15th.
Seems they think the British are pretty darn crazy having a site dedicated to biscuits and custard! They all hate custard - but it's lovely stuff....keep up the good work and by the way Rich Tea and Bourbon are the best!
Janet |
| Nicey replies: We may be odd but at least we have a special Canada icon (as well as Custard one). |
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| Tomsk |
Greg Shailes mentioned 'lashings' and 'dollops' as standard custard measuring units - I reckon there's a subtle qualitative as well as quantitative difference. Lashings sounds far more liquid (less viscous) than dollop - same sort of difference as a 5W-30 engine oil versus an NLGI No2 grease for the lubrication engineers out there. A dollop would also certainly be smaller than lashings, and might just stay on top of a piece of that jam sponge pudding, while lashings would flow down all the edges and round the bowl until the sponge was swimming in custard. Which takes us dangerously near to thin swampy custard as found in horrible cafés in Harrogate.
Which leads us to a linguistic problem: what if you want large quantities of thick custard? Do you ask for 2, 3, or 4 dollops? Or take a chance with 'lashings of custard please'?
cheerio,
Tomsk |
| Nicey replies: I would have thought the next units of measurement would be a 'dribble' for something less than a dollop and 'bucket-loads' for something greater than lashings. As for multipliers I think they are best avoided, you would be far better placed arguing that you had asked for lashings of custard but had only received a dollop rather than you had requested 3 dollops. Just ask for lashings of thick custard, or maybe a bucket-load. |
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| Racheal Oliveck |
Dear Nicey
Real custard is brilliant and much better than the ready made rubbish. In fact, Nigella's new book contains several recipes featuring custard powder.
We've just returned from holiday in Norway where custard seems to play a huge part in daily life, most notably in the Norwegian School Bun - a bun with custard in a sort of well in the middle, with icing and dessicated coconut on the top. A Norwegian friend tells me that this is the only cake/bun children are allowed to take to school, to make sure no one feels better or worse than anyone else due to bun inequalities. Typical Scandinavians.
Regards as always
Rachael
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| Nicey replies: You see I was interviewed once by a lady from Norway and she didn't mention this at all. It's funny how people take such things for granted such as standardised educational custard buns, where as clearly they are a thing of wonder. Also it does beg the question as to what would happen to those non conformists who maybe fancied a squirt of jam in their bun or maybe something with a few currants in too. |
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| Greg Shailes |
With the current custard craze happening in the NCOTAASD community, I'm going to have to zip home now for a nice cup of tea, and the classic Sunday tea-time pudding from my childhood - a tinned 'Jam Sponge Pudding' by Heinz (other tinned puddings are also available) with lashings of Birds Custard (other custards are probably available). Bliss.
Anyway. This started me thinking about 'lashings'. Is a lashing some kind of scientific measurement for those custard-like substances which bridge the gap between solid and liquid? I like to think so. I like to imagine trifle factories ordering 1,200 lashings of Custard every week. I imagine the next unit down from a lashing would probably be a 'dollop', which is commonly used to measure whipped cream.
Greg. |
| Nicey replies: Good applied reasoning there Greg. |
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| Alexandra Jenks |
Dear Nicey,
My brother in law used to drink mugs of custard (laced with several sugars) as you or I would drink a cup of tea. I am the only person around who finds this habit absolutely stomach churningly disgusting. He who shall remain nameless used to drink these gooey cups of custard about 7 times a day, made from Birds Instant Custard and hot water...
In response to one of your other emails, when I was kid I also liked to eat raw
Angel Delight
Trifle Sponges
Nesquick
Jelly Cubes
Vegetable Stock Powder...very salty if I remember!
Anyway I'm now off to eat the raw contents of my store cupboard. mmmm
Alex |
| Nicey replies: Yes we have received quite a few emails from people now owning up to drinking dilute instant custard. Perhaps vending machines should switch from soup to custard. |
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