Pudding course around 1950 (memories of...)

DanniRae, me too! We had 2 apple trees in the garden and my Dad and brother loved apple pie and everything else Mum made with the apples! It’s something I never choose to eat now. Thinking back now, I’m amazed that we ate so well on a limited income thanks to Mum’s ingenuity.

At Primary school in the 50s, I was able to walk home for lunch. Things changed in 1961 when I went to Secondary school. I absolutely hated the school dinners, having to eat things we never ate at home! Pilchards in tomato sauce and very lumpy tapioca were the very worst. Chocolate sponge with chocolate custard and caramel tart were the best.

My poor mum ....... I always used to moan like mad when she gave us stewed apples and custard. I thought it was such a boring pudding. I now realise that I was lucky that we had a pudding every day ......... my children had to make do with a tub yoghurt or a piece of fruit. Now I am feeling guilty for being such an ungrateful daughter

Ma's savoury cooking in general was dire, hence my deep love for school dinners, thankfully good at both Junior and High school, but she was great at the old sweet stuff and her homemade apple fritters were things of beauty. Ditto her lemon curd and jam tarts.
My Welsh grandad used to make sugar pie, simply left over pastry folded like a pasty and filled with sugar, butter and a tiny bit of salt. Absolutely divine and a forerunner of today's salted caramel treats.

Loved my primary school dinners , made on the premisis. My favourite was fish, mashed potato with mushy peas and pickled beetroot! Followed by chocolate sponge and pink custard.

Only yesterday I made a lovely rice pudding. I made it in my slow cooker and it is thick and creamy. Made using longlife semi skimmed milk, powdered sweetener and vanilla essence, it's a SW recipe and supposed to be sin free. I made it to reheat later today when my neice comes to visit as she loves homemade rice pudding. Oh yes I added nutmeg too.

At school we used to have semolina coloured green, pink or brown served with a blob of something called mock cream which had a sort of slimy, grainy texture. Also tapioca and a horrible trifle which was a layer of tasteless jelly with cake in it topped with a rigid layer of cold custard and a blob of the mock cream. I hated them all.
This was in the late 70s so they couldn't even blame rationing.

My Dad grew rhubarb at the bottom of the garden. I was often the one sent to pull it. I loved stewed rhubarb and custard.
My Mother used to make spotted dick too. She put the mixture in a pudding basin, and boiled it in a pan on the rayburn. Yummy.
At school, I was fortunate. Being a pudding lover I used to be given the puddings my friends didn't like. My favourites were chocolate pudding with chocolate sauce, Manchester tart and something Mrs Sampson (the school cook) called apple crisp. It was stewed apple under a crispy topping made with cornflakes, syrup and butter I think, it was served with custard. I was the only one who actually enjoyed the school tapioca pudding, or frogspawn as we called it.

No schoo dinners here but my mums speciality was bread and butter pudding with home made custard. I have tried it in lots of places since but none measured up to hers. We had dessert after dinner every day including rice, semolina but no bought reats or fizzy drinks so none of us were overweight

I would happily devour rice pudding and extra helping of skin whenever I could. Similarly, rhubarb crumble and apple tart, cherry clafoutis, clootie dumpling, upside down pineapple cake. What I would turn down though is, ice cream! Bleurgh

I have been serving Alpro single cream with pudding for years and no one has yet noticed the difference to full fat cream.

The pudding we dreaded was stewed apricots, there were always loads of dead ants floating in the juice. We called it stewed ants.

School puds, loved and hated them. Sponge apple pudding with custard my favourite but the one I hated we called River Thames mud! It was chocolate blancmange, very slimy. Loved the pies but hated frogspawn (tapioca).

My mother made wonderful puddings with fruit from the allotment and eggs from our chickens. Custard tart with nutmeg, blackcurrents stewed and served with light as air sponge and custard, pancakes with raspberries. Wish I could cook like her!

My diabetic grandad used to eat egg custard, which I didn't like at the time. I love it now.

I didn’t much like puddings much but my grandmother used to make a baked rice pudding using flaked rice and a little nutmeg. It smelt wonderful and was such a treat!

I ate rice pudding nearly everyday for 3 yrs when at boarding school..loved the skin. The alternative was usually a suety pudding like spotted dick or jam roly poly! If it was a fruit crumble then I chose that!

I remember all these but probably the worst of all was a duet pudding boiled in a cloth the served with jam or syrup. No wonder I was such a fat child. We had pudding of some sort everyday...wouldn't dream of that now

The best thing ever was Manchester tart. Also liked chocolate sponge and pink custard.

Our house specialty in the 1950s was the boil-in-the-tea towel suet 'sinkers'. Suet spotted dick was frequent, wrapped in a dedicated white cloth, tied with string each end like a Christmas cracker and safety-pinned along its length. Memorably slimy.

But hey, Mum, what I wouldn't give for you to be with us again , making it in your own inimitable style?

Gypsy tart tooth destroying but absolutely delicious.

Gypsy tart is evaporated milk and loads of brown sugar. Never been able to eat it as it is tooth rottingly sweet.

redhea Gypsy tart is just brown sugar and evaporated milk whisked into a thick foam and baked ina shortcrust case

Clootie dumpling with custard and depending how big a dumpling she had made we had a slice fried in bacon fat with bacon and eggs for Sunday breakfast ,Apple pies or apple sponges were a regular on the menu and rice pudding made with full fat milk and cream ,she made huge panfuls of it often 8 or ten pints of milk ,fruit saundaes when the ice cream van arrived at the right time for dinner ,ice cream tinned fruit cocktail and cream.
School dinners were made in the convent kitchens and were fab ,semolina and jam,sponge cake with icing and sprinkes with custard ,chocolate sponge with chocolate sauce ,gypsy tart that was afavourite

My parents filled the kitchen table with fruit pies my dad grew the fruit. All the puddings mentioned tapioca and rice baked in the oven. I still make these old fashioned puddings better than any fancy cake any day.

My Mum's apple pie and custard. We sometimes had ice cream with it if it was pay day!

I remember a pudding I used to have at school called Gypsy Tart. Pastry filled with evaporated milk I think whisked with something. I loved it and have never seen it since. I hated school dinners but cheered up once I saw it was Gypsy Tart for pudding!

All of the above would be welcome here. Thinking now of warm custard and sliced banana or my Mum’s jam sponge pudding ?