I have been recalling and producing, for home consumption, some of my favourite meals from my childhood. One of these is a simple beef casserole with a mixture of mashed potato and mashed carrot and is something that my paternal grandmother used to make for me, as an especial favourite. However, just as people' houses always have their distinctive individual scents, I can never make this dish exactly as my grandmother made it and I am not entirely sure that I want to.
Other meals such as the big breakfast cannot even come close: there are all the components except hog's pudding which, so far as I know, is a peculiarly Cornish speciality (about the same dimensions as black pudding, which I detest) and absolutely delicious sliced into thick slices and fried on each side. Without this component the Brazilian Big Breakfast is wanting and I have just given myself a great yearning for something that I have traded in for a place in the sun. At least we certainly have that here today, whereas Cornwall, I hear, is cold and damp...
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John Fowler’s Nantclwyd Hall Revisited
11 hours ago
An often overlooked ingredient of tasty casseroles is brandy - and a greater quantity than one would think. Cheers, st.tully
ReplyDeleteThe casserole would never taste right because your taste buds have matured. A child tastes things differently. Trying to recapture almost anything from childhood tends to disappoint...
ReplyDeleteThanks for those two comments.
ReplyDeleteBrandy and a decent sherry are two excellent standbys to liven up many dishes. Indeed, today we are having Poulet Marengo (without the fried bread, fried egg and crayfish but with rice) and Napoleon's chef de cuisine, Durand, added brandy to the original.
Changing taste buds is something that I had not considered. I suppose, also, they have become used to other things too such as alcohol and tobacco, which must also make a difference. However, the taste of a well-made hog's pudding, the last time that I had it, has remained quite constant; maybe, though, the palate of childhood was stronger in some curious way and more strongly reactive too.