Grandma’s Kitchen

When I was a teenager I would spend one or two nights of the school weeks with my maternal grandparents. My involvement in almost all things music at the school meant many long days attending after hours rehearsals. To add the usual long commute home was impractical, so off to Grandma and Grandad’s house I would trot.

One of the things I remember most about their abode was the many tins of food stacked above the kitchen cupboards. I dreaded to think how old they were, and dreaded even more to have to eat any of their contents. But their labels did provide ample opportunities for reading during lulls in conversation over the dinner table.

There seemed to be an inordinate number of tins of baked beans and only a slightly smaller number of tinned spaghetti. I will admit that my then cast iron stomach did enjoy a tinned spaghetti sandwich with white bread on frequent occasions. However, baked beans, to this day, are still to be suffered rather than enjoyed.

My reading of the labels usually ceased at the arrival of the pudding. There was always a game between my grandparents and me, in which I had to guess the pudding of the night. My dear Grandma had a stock of recipes so my guesses were not always correct. My favourite was her chocolate self saucing pudding, but I enjoyed all of them - except for one.

Unfortunately my prayers for Tapioca pudding to not be presented sometimes went unanswered. Being the well brought up young teenager that I was, I never complained. Instead, when the dreaded rubbery glug was served, I’d revert my gaze back to the tins perched atop the cupboards. Their labels never quite managed to distract me enough though, as I gobbled my serving as quickly as possible in the hope of not noticing what I was consuming.

After my aforementioned favourite, Lemon Pudding was perhaps next in line for my vote. To this day when I make this dessert, I use my dear Grandma’s antique manual egg beater to whisk the egg whites. As I do, I can’t help wondering who and how many people in the past would have licked those beaters, as I so often did in my childhood. They must be a minefield of ancestral DNA!

But put that intriguing thought aside as you enjoy the recipe below. I write it here for you, but also for my incredible niece, who recently asked me about it. I have no doubt that she will whip it up in no time in her KitchAid. Unlike her though, I need to burn up the pudding’s calories before I consume them, so I’ll stick to mixing it all by hand.

Enjoy.

Nikki

2 oz butter (56.7 grams, to be precise), 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs (separated), 2 tbspns SR flour, juice and rind of 2 lemons, 1 and 1/2 cups milk

Cream the butter and sugar. Add egg yolks, flour, lemons, milk and stiffly beaten egg whites

Stand in a dish of water and bake for 1 hour in a moderate oven.