What’s happened to custard?

As a child we had bananas and birds custard for a pudding. My mother would count out the banana slices , so the three of us were equal .
As an adult I’m not a fan of custard or though my DH and DD love it and always request for after Sunday lunch .

Ilovedogs22

My DH has custard everyday with a little sponge pud.
It's his little treat 😉

Aww😃
And why not? There are worse little treats.

I suspect that all you “custard haters” out there have been the victims of truly incompetent cooks whether at home or school.

If you enjoy something especially food I think you take the time to learn make it well. 🙂‍↔️

I hate custard in all its forms, but it used to fascinate me as a child stirring the milk into the pink powder and trying to catch the exact moment when it turned from pink to yellow.

Jocork try Amazon I bought strawberry flavoured blancmange off the site but just so I could make pink custard like school dinners had on puds.there are other flavours, think it is Pearce Duff brand.

I still use Birds powder and it seem ok to me. I've never made 'real' custard with eggs, and neither did my mum who was a cookery teacher!
The thing I miss is blancmange powders. I used to buy Brown and Polson, either in the mixed flavour packs - reaspberry, strawberry, chocolate and vanilla - or the packs of 2 raspberry flavour, but can'r seem to find them any more. Tesco do strawberry flavour in single packs but I really liked the raspberry and chocolate flavours. As a child I was often given what mum called 'pink pudding' - a bowl of hot raspberry blancmange - which I loved. Anyone know where I can buy Brown and Polson blancmange powders?

I think it's " gone posh ".
You can buy " Tesco finest " and others and they're absolutely delicious but absolutely nothing like that thick yellow sauce we loved as teenagers!
Such a shame! It was a great staple of family dinner when my 4 were growing too !

Oh Nippitydoodaa, I'm with you on semolina, rice pudding et al- the works of the devil in opinion

My DH has custard everyday with a little sponge pud.
It's his little treat 😉

My OH loves custard and it has to be thick, he even likes it the next day cold because I put the leftovers in little moulds. Easy to please! I always cook the custard in a 2 pint Pyrex jug. A pint takes about 3 minutes. I stir it half way through. Easy to clean the jug.

I was never a lover of milk puddings like Custard Semolina Rice pudding. I haven't had any of them for years. Give me fruit anytime

Of course it has changed as has most things (eg chocolate is now more sugar and less cocoa)I’ve discovered the same with the custard, definitely not the same. However if you use cornflour, and then add a drop of yellow food colouring and a drip of vanilla essence in your milk, that’s the same thing (except you know exactly what is in it). So you can flavour it however you like eg red food colour and raspberry or strawberry flavour, or yellow with lemon flavouring (esscence) or orange colour with orange flavour etc.

Mr Bird invented the custard powder in Birmingham in 1837 as his wife was allergic to eggs. Needless to say it is no longer produced here, and it was sold to Kraft, (as was Cadbury) then on to Premier foods. Similarly HP sauce is no longer made in Birmingham but in Holland I think.

I haven't noticed any difference?

We don’t have custard often enough to justify buying a tin of custard powder so we just have the tinned variety now. However, for trifle it HAS to be custard powder (or blancmange) because the tinned stuff doesn’t set.

Last time I looked, Bird’s Custard powder consisted of sugar, cornflour, ‘flavouring’ and ‘colouring’.
I threw it away & made some from scratch with eggs, sugar, milk and real vanilla essence.
Laborious but worth it.

Other than for special occasion type meals I just use the tins or cartons now, often the light version, preferably Ambrosia. It isn't quite the same as Birds powder but it's fine for every day.

Chocolatelovinggran

You need M&S classy custard from the chiller cabinet: everyone needs M&S classy custard from the chiller cabinet....
the food of the gods ( unlike ambrosia, ironically)

We had this the other weekend, it was nice but very, very sweet.

I do think it has changed a bit - lots of things have additional flavouring to cater for the fact that younger folks taste buds are less sensitive due to overload. (One of the reasons, I think for rising obesity)
But our taste buds do change as we get older and we become more able to taste sweet. SO I guess a bit of both?

Hubby has no-sugar version and for the odd occasion that I make it for myself, I have discovered Pearce Duff's from B&M to keep in the cupboard. Got to be worth a try, I thought for 35p for enough for 2, when the food bank were looking for some, at £1 for 3 packs.

I agree it isn’t what it used to be. To me it tastes less like custard. Last time I added extra powder and sugar and it was marginally better.

Custard powder using full fat long life milk and a splash of cream as an occasional treat tastes good.

I still use it. My grandchildren love it. I haven't noticed a difference either.

You need M&S classy custard from the chiller cabinet: everyone needs M&S classy custard from the chiller cabinet....
the food of the gods ( unlike ambrosia, ironically)

My mother would sometimes put a spoonful or two of custard powder in the rice pudding before it went in the oven - delicious- and I suppose it made it go a little further?

I do use Birds powder when can't be bothered which I find really good. Usually make from scratch as always have more than enough eggs.