Thank you. Greens, once of Brighton, do mixes for cheesecake and tiramisu which work rather like Angel Delight, but with better ingredients (for a particular definition of "better"). The cheesecake requires a biscuit base - provided. The tiramisu I add sponge fingers and coffee to. https://www.greenscakes.co.uk/product-category/desserts/
Originally they did lemon meringue pie mix, and Carmelle, which is a sort of caramel custard, but they've expanded and taken people over. Because my family used those two quite a lot, they come under comfort food, but for less comfort demanding situations.
They are currently not in my good books because they have done the thing of taking over another company and dumping something I liked. In this case, raspberry blancmange - they used to do four flavours in a box, which cost less than four packets of the current flavours. If they dumped the lemon meringue and the Carmelle, they could join Dr Oetker on the naughty step. (angelica, Symingtons maple walnut table cream spring to mind immediately.)
I used to fantasise that I was followed round by mystery shoppers who identified what I would go out of my way to buy, and then advise it be discontinued. Those tended not to be the long standing products, though. Except Callard and Bowser nougat. That was a company takeover and dump job. There's a recipe on line for recreating it, so I wasn't the only one.
Callard and Bowser got rid of their incredibly addicting licorice toffee! Oh, I looooooved those little silver boxes with the individually wrapped toffees. Even if you swore you hate licorice, you might be won over by these. I do not understand why they stopped making these. They were so creamy and smooth. My mouth is watering just typing this!
Our sherbet is like ice cream, but not as sweet and lacking something ice cream has...at this moment I can't tell you what that something is.
Creaminess.
I think that would be it.
And speaking of creaminess, I feel led to share that I’ve just fixed and eaten a tasty and very comforting supper of grits with sausage and butter beans. Bourbon was also on hand.
Anyone else have cheese and Marmite pancakes for comfort?
No-one, but no-one, could get comfort from Marmite. Vegemite definitely, Marmite, never.
I would not start that particular discussion if I were you
Speaking as one whose family only ever ate Marmite and whose high school was next door to the Marmite factory ... ahhh the fragrance ... it quite took one's concentration from irregular French verbs and whatever Shakespeare were were doing that term
I remember as a child being taken to York for a holiday and the smell of chocolate oranges that filled the air from the Terry's factory! Don't think they make them there now...
Hearty, homemade soup accompanied by toast with lashings of butter, especially on a day like today when it is blowy, cold and rainy.
Definitely soup! I have just finished a bacon hock soup similar to one my mother used to make. I also make soup using boiled beef bones and throw in whatever vegetables are on hand. Both these soups tend to solidify to a jelly in the fridge because of the connective tissue. My other favourite is Chicken barley broth a recipe from Alison Holst*.
* I don't know if AH was known much anywhere apart from NZ. She had a few TV series and wrote a lot of recipe books from the late 70s onward. Her son Simon joined her contributing vegetarian recipes. I like using her recipes because they are well written and very easy to follow. Best of all ingredients could be bought locally, which was a great advantage.
Her pineapple Christmas cake was probably the most popular cake in NZ, for many years, though I prefer her diabetic recipe for eating and her Rum and Raisin one for ease of cooking and it's popularity amongst blokes ( the bloke who mows my lawns gets one as his Christmas bonus).
Mum's tattie scones, made on the griddle of the stove from left-over potatoes. Buttered, rolled up and each bite topped with another knob of butter. Winter heaven.
Sweet treat: either tiffin or millionaire's shortbread (whichever was available - again home-made). If there wasn't any, then sneaking a couple of squares of Scott-block cooking chocolate from the larder* ...
* thereby ensuring there wouldn't be any, as there wasn't any chocolate ...
Yes, this sounds like a great idea. Put all the Marmite, crumpets, and peanut butter in the same place. That place will be nowhere near me, so it won't bother me
A child once brought marmite and grated cheddar sandwiches to the school party, and I had to go round trying to get others to try them, as it proved very unusual. As part of my salesmanship drive, I tried a couple, and found they worked surprisingly well. Not so well that I make them for myself, but well enough that I started adding marmite into cheesy potatoes and savoury bread and butter pudding to add vitamin B to offset my guest's antibiotics. Worked well in them, as well, but not dramatically noticeable.
If it didn't involve far too much labor in a tiny kitchen with barely any counter space, I would love to whip up a giant bowl (or vat, or witch's cauldron, or truckload) of my homemade Pico de Gallo. MY recipe calls for lots and lots of chopped orange, red, and yellow Bell peppers, purple/red onions, Cilantro, fresh garlic or garlic powder, a squeeze of fresh lime juice and the best ingredient, fresh cubed watermelon. Mmmmmmmmm. So very, very delicious. However, I am too sick these days to deal with the tiny kitchen and the chop, chop, chopping of all the ingredients.
If it didn't involve far too much labor in a tiny kitchen with barely any counter space, I would love to whip up a giant bowl (or vat, or witch's cauldron, or truckload) of my homemade Pico de Gallo. MY recipe calls for lots and lots of chopped orange, red, and yellow Bell peppers, purple/red onions, Cilantro, fresh garlic or garlic powder, a squeeze of fresh lime juice and the best ingredient, fresh cubed watermelon. Mmmmmmmmm. So very, very delicious. However, I am too sick these days to deal with the tiny kitchen and the chop, chop, chopping of all the ingredients.
Homemade beef casserole with dumplings. Mmmm!
I first had creme caramel on holiday in Spain, so Carmel was something a bit exotic, the equivalent of the boxed dried curry and paella sets you could get in the 70’s. (Which I also liked)
I remember when I was very young we sometimes got a packet mix for creme caramel, but it took a couple of days to make due to setting. Now it just comes in the funny pots with the tear off strip to release the sauce.
You get much bigger helpings from the packet. I can, in fact, eat an entire pudding if alone without noticing feeling full! And it will set during one day. Possibly using the fridge whereas as a child it was in the larder.
I am now wondering about Honeycomb Mould. Which incorporated egg in a jelly cooked in a saucepan, which then separated into two layers on setting. It came in a packet. I think there was a Victorian non-packet version, that was a long winded process.
I've made Honeycomb Mould from time to time - but never with the aid of a packet. It's not that difficult - recipe from The Cookery Year (pub Readers' Digest) - which is basically a mid- 20thC compendium of mainly classic English and French cuisine.
If it didn't involve far too much labor in a tiny kitchen with barely any counter space, I would love to whip up a giant bowl (or vat, or witch's cauldron, or truckload) of my homemade Pico de Gallo. MY recipe calls for lots and lots of chopped orange, red, and yellow Bell peppers, purple/red onions, Cilantro, fresh garlic or garlic powder, a squeeze of fresh lime juice and the best ingredient, fresh cubed watermelon. Mmmmmmmmm. So very, very delicious. However, I am too sick these days to deal with the tiny kitchen and the chop, chop, chopping of all the ingredients.
Firenze, thanks for that - I might even have that book somewhere - unless it is a gardening one. I did have a Victorian recipe book with one in it, and a version of the table creams Symington used to do before Dr Oetker took them over and dumped them.
I arrived at my new hospital accommodation last night feeling the need for comfort. Went with a ready made macaroni cheese from the supermarket with some sriracha sauce for a touch of excitement. It certainly hit the comfort spot.
Yes, this sounds like a great idea. Put all the Marmite, crumpets, and peanut butter in the same place. That place will be nowhere near me, so it won't bother me
Mmmm ... piping hot crumpets spread with Marmite and enough butter to melt down into all the holes and trickle out of the bottom ....
Let's remember that even when we are discussing Marmite and Vegemite, we are still in Heaven. One man's comfort food may be another's abomination, but let's not lean too hard on our dislikes or mock others for their likes. Keep the discussion as light and fresh as a sorbet, please, and do not let it become dark and sticky like ... well ...
Talking of cream cheese, I wonder if some foods always remain comforting. I can remember really liking cream cheese on scones, and blue cheese and sweet sherry. Not sure I'd thank you for either now, though I think bananas fried up with crispy bacon would still work.
But casseroles using condensed soup as a base - their day has gone, I've discovered wine and cream since then.
Waaaaay back in the fogs of antiquity (actually 1980 or '81), my oldest sister and legal guardian bought a fancy, silvery box of Callard & Bowser Licorice Toffee and declared that if I did well on a science quiz or some such thing, she'd let me try one. I was twelve years old and sneered at the very idea of eating icky old licorice! However, just to prove me wrong, my sister made me try a little corner of her piece and...OMG! Man, oh, man, those licorice toffees were so blasted delicious! I aced that science quiz and my sister kept on using them as incentives to get me to study in school.
Long story short, a few years ago I remembered them and got a craving for them only to find out that Callard & Bowser no longer makes these delightful treats! Oh, the wailing! Oh, the sobbing and gnashing of teeth!
However!! I have purchased some brand that is made in merry olde England and is supposedly very close in taste to the C&B confection. They were ordered last week through Amazon and I am waiting for them with serious determination...as they are made in the U.K., they were not cheap. For what I paid, I certainly hope they live up to the hype.
Callard & Bowser licorice toffee could make a licorice hater into a lover. When I get them, I shall let you all know if they are worthy.
The sad thing is part of the deliciousness of things in memory is the act of remembering. Sometimes even the exact same thing just doesn't seem the same as it was way back when.
Let's remember that even when we are discussing Marmite and Vegemite, we are still in Heaven. One man's comfort food may be another's abomination, but let's not lean too hard on our dislikes or mock others for their likes. Keep the discussion as light and fresh as a sorbet, please, and do not let it become dark and sticky like ... well ...
Trudy, Heavenly Host
Apologies.
A tip to Americans trying Vegemite - it's intended to be spread very, very thinly, not slathered on as apricot jam may be.
Callard and Bowser was bought out by the sort of company that buys something that has a lot of fans and then dumps it*. I was never attracted to the licorice toffee, but the nougat, O the nougat. Neatly wrapped in silvery paper, in that neat rectangular packet. I had the last lot from my local convenience store, and did not know it would be the last lot.
There is, apparently, a problem with licorice. I used to get small things called Imps, for breathing, from a business in Crediton, which also produced my sister's favourite, licorice and blackcurrant eclairs, but they all disappeared, and it turned out that they could not get ethically produced licorice.
*I do not understand this business practice. Presumably they want to develop the factory site or something asset strippingy. It isn't just foodstuffs (Dr Oetker is particularly bad). I used to get clothes from a company called Nightingales, which had a lot of things made with batik fabrics, so supporting eastern artisans. It was taken over by a large catalogue company, and now stocks just the same sort of stuff as their other labels. Something similar happened with a company called Clothkits which produced printed fabrics which the buyer sewed up themselves. Bought out and then everything turned into something completely different. And they went bust.
The sad thing is part of the deliciousness of things in memory is the act of remembering. Sometimes even the exact same thing just doesn't seem the same as it was way back when.
Oh yes. UK shippies of a certain age (mine) will remember Cremola Foam. I was not allowed it as a child but did get it in a friend's house and thought it was just the best drink ever. And then they re-issued it and I bought a tine, ostensibly for my kids - this was about 10 years ago - and oh it was horrible. It just tasted of bicarb and sugar.
Liquorice is a lovely comfort food for me - I occasionally order online from a shop that sells various liquorice sweets from different countries, and buy a variety of Italian, Dutch and Swedish liquorice.
As for Marmite, I hated it as a kid, but then one time I had Marmite on toast as an adult and found to my surprise that I liked it in a sort of emotional way, that it had somehow become a comfort food for me. It now had a nostalgic quality. I like it on thickly buttered crumpets. I also quite like Marmite flavoured chocolate.
A favourite comfort food for me is the crispy skin from a roasted chicken or duck. And I save the fat, and roast potatoes and carrots in it, which is also nice comfort food.
@Penny S Tiger Toast which is buttered toast spread with Vegemite and topped with spaced out strips of cheese is quite popular with Australian toddlers. Also consequently comfort food for slightly older children.
Liquorice was spoken of in GQT recently. None of the 'experts' had ever grown it, so it was a brief discussion, but one thing I did learn from them was that liquorice sweets no longer taste as once they did because they are flavoured with aniseed - and mostly just taste of aniseed.
My late MiL was half Dutch, and occasionally gave me some Dutch liquorice as a treat. I really liked it, but I've not had any in years.
and back to Marmite - I have noticed jars of Marmite with peanut butter for sale locally. Anyone tried that?
Not sure that mixing two comfort foods is going to make it twice as comforting - but maybe I'm missing something.
Comments
Callard and Bowser got rid of their incredibly addicting licorice toffee! Oh, I looooooved those little silver boxes with the individually wrapped toffees. Even if you swore you hate licorice, you might be won over by these. I do not understand why they stopped making these. They were so creamy and smooth. My mouth is watering just typing this!
Sherbet has less milk/cream than ice cream.
Sorbet has no dairy at all. Sherbet has a bit of milk/cream, ice cream has lots of cream, and usually has a lot of air blended in to it.
Sorbet usually has the most intense fruit flavours, and ice cream usually the least intense.
Creaminess.
No-one, but no-one, could get comfort from Marmite. Vegemite definitely, Marmite, never.
And speaking of creaminess, I feel led to share that I’ve just fixed and eaten a tasty and very comforting supper of grits with sausage and butter beans. Bourbon was also on hand.
I’m happy.
I would not start that particular discussion if I were you
Speaking as one whose family only ever ate Marmite and whose high school was next door to the Marmite factory ... ahhh the fragrance ... it quite took one's concentration from irregular French verbs and whatever Shakespeare were were doing that term
I love Marmite, but don't get comfort from it. Vegamite I would probably only get cooties from.
Comfort food - Sticky Toffee Pudding. Sweet, rich, but also a hint of sharpness. Also, it has fruit in it, so that is one of my 5 a day. Mmmmmm.
I recall as a child being driven through Burton- I thought it was horrid. As an amateur brewer I quite like it now.
I used to live near the Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce factory. Lovely smell!
Comfort food: cheese on toast with Worcestershire Sauce.
Asher
Definitely soup! I have just finished a bacon hock soup similar to one my mother used to make. I also make soup using boiled beef bones and throw in whatever vegetables are on hand. Both these soups tend to solidify to a jelly in the fridge because of the connective tissue. My other favourite is Chicken barley broth a recipe from Alison Holst*.
* I don't know if AH was known much anywhere apart from NZ. She had a few TV series and wrote a lot of recipe books from the late 70s onward. Her son Simon joined her contributing vegetarian recipes. I like using her recipes because they are well written and very easy to follow. Best of all ingredients could be bought locally, which was a great advantage.
Her pineapple Christmas cake was probably the most popular cake in NZ, for many years, though I prefer her diabetic recipe for eating and her Rum and Raisin one for ease of cooking and it's popularity amongst blokes ( the bloke who mows my lawns gets one as his Christmas bonus).
No. Please never speak of this again.
That is a perversion I've never heard of before and wish never to again.
Marmite is Satan's earwax. It has no business being near any food, let alone cheese.
Sweet treat: either tiffin or millionaire's shortbread (whichever was available - again home-made). If there wasn't any, then sneaking a couple of squares of Scott-block cooking chocolate from the larder* ...
* thereby ensuring there wouldn't be any, as there wasn't any chocolate ...
Yes, this sounds like a great idea. Put all the Marmite, crumpets, and peanut butter in the same place. That place will be nowhere near me, so it won't bother me
On my list to make....thanks
Cream or ice-cream usually, but custard would work too. Rich, smooth and creamy custard is a delight all in itself.
I first had creme caramel on holiday in Spain, so Carmel was something a bit exotic, the equivalent of the boxed dried curry and paella sets you could get in the 70’s. (Which I also liked)
I don't live on your planet.
I am now wondering about Honeycomb Mould. Which incorporated egg in a jelly cooked in a saucepan, which then separated into two layers on setting. It came in a packet. I think there was a Victorian non-packet version, that was a long winded process.
Glad to be of service. 🙂
They are both fine. Honestly. Promite is ok too.
Mmmm ... piping hot crumpets spread with Marmite and enough butter to melt down into all the holes and trickle out of the bottom ....
If you're eating Marmite rather than Vegemite, you're not living
Personally, I wouldn't take that from a Vegamite-muncher. But then as you clearly have no taste, I will just accept that you are not worthy of it.
Or loaded with cream cheese?
Trudy, Heavenly Host
Especially cream cheese with added chive and onion.
But casseroles using condensed soup as a base - their day has gone, I've discovered wine and cream since then.
Absolutely! Let me know how it turns out.
Long story short, a few years ago I remembered them and got a craving for them only to find out that Callard & Bowser no longer makes these delightful treats! Oh, the wailing! Oh, the sobbing and gnashing of teeth!
However!! I have purchased some brand that is made in merry olde England and is supposedly very close in taste to the C&B confection. They were ordered last week through Amazon and I am waiting for them with serious determination...as they are made in the U.K., they were not cheap. For what I paid, I certainly hope they live up to the hype.
Callard & Bowser licorice toffee could make a licorice hater into a lover. When I get them, I shall let you all know if they are worthy.
Apologies.
A tip to Americans trying Vegemite - it's intended to be spread very, very thinly, not slathered on as apricot jam may be.
There is, apparently, a problem with licorice. I used to get small things called Imps, for breathing, from a business in Crediton, which also produced my sister's favourite, licorice and blackcurrant eclairs, but they all disappeared, and it turned out that they could not get ethically produced licorice.
*I do not understand this business practice. Presumably they want to develop the factory site or something asset strippingy. It isn't just foodstuffs (Dr Oetker is particularly bad). I used to get clothes from a company called Nightingales, which had a lot of things made with batik fabrics, so supporting eastern artisans. It was taken over by a large catalogue company, and now stocks just the same sort of stuff as their other labels. Something similar happened with a company called Clothkits which produced printed fabrics which the buyer sewed up themselves. Bought out and then everything turned into something completely different. And they went bust.
Oh yes. UK shippies of a certain age (mine) will remember Cremola Foam. I was not allowed it as a child but did get it in a friend's house and thought it was just the best drink ever. And then they re-issued it and I bought a tine, ostensibly for my kids - this was about 10 years ago - and oh it was horrible. It just tasted of bicarb and sugar.
As for Marmite, I hated it as a kid, but then one time I had Marmite on toast as an adult and found to my surprise that I liked it in a sort of emotional way, that it had somehow become a comfort food for me. It now had a nostalgic quality. I like it on thickly buttered crumpets. I also quite like Marmite flavoured chocolate.
A favourite comfort food for me is the crispy skin from a roasted chicken or duck. And I save the fat, and roast potatoes and carrots in it, which is also nice comfort food.
My late MiL was half Dutch, and occasionally gave me some Dutch liquorice as a treat. I really liked it, but I've not had any in years.
and back to Marmite - I have noticed jars of Marmite with peanut butter for sale locally. Anyone tried that?
Not sure that mixing two comfort foods is going to make it twice as comforting - but maybe I'm missing something.