Still waving goodbye to condensed milk (C8) is Peter Miniutti of Ashbury, although he worries that “if old condensed milkaholics may have developed diabetes in later life, will today’s generation of trick-or-treaters suffer the same fate?” None of us here would be surprised, Peter.
Stephanie Edwards of Leichhardt takes a happier view, “Thanks to Column 8, I have solved a medical mystery. Despite diabetes running in my family, I’ve escaped it. Now I know this is due to a lack of condensed milk in childhood.”
Thank you, also to the Col8ers, too many to name, who wrote about the wonders of a tin of condensed milk boiled for long enough (on stoves, on campfires and, once, in a laundry copper) to make caramel, or, if you live in a posh suburb, dulce de leche. These memories came with many dire warnings about keeping the tin constantly submerged lest it explode (you have been warned).
“When I was a child in the 1940s and ’50s, camping with my trout fishing father, each morning, he’d scrape the layer of flies off the top of the opened tin of condensed milk before using it with the billy tea,” recalls Jennifer Dewar of Double Bay (though currently in the Galápagos Islands). “No harm seemed to come to any of us.”
Thrifty reader, Phillip Smith of Waterloo, would like it known that, “I baked my Christmas fruit cakes last week. Each year I re-use the brown paper and newspaper outer shell around the cake tin. One of these casings was crumbling, having been re-baked over many years. The Herald I used was dated November 1, 1997.”
Eric Sekula of Turramurra, in a campaign he’s been waging for some time, would like to put in a word for the other great Aussie tube, “The Aussie traveller’s best friend (after the passport) was the tube of Vegemite, which is unfortunately no longer available. It was an instant breakfast or lunch with bread, and light and easy to throw in your bag. Far superior to the alternatives of a fragile, heavy, jar or bulky squeeze bottle.”
Then, a non-food-related item – and for this relief, much thanks – Kin Wong of Chatswood remarks, “My wife was recently listening to a beautiful song and wondered what it was. I happen to know it and said Random Truck. I explained to her that it’s the old Scottish song Annie Laurie.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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