Clutch those pearls. Mary Berry — national treasure etc — says it’s fine to use ready-made custard. At the Cheltenham literary festival, where she’s promoting her latest book (they seem to come along every year), Love to Cook, she observed, “I’m happy to buy a carton of first-rate custard. And who would make puff pastry now?”
Even more dispiritingly, she was backed by Angela Harnett, a first-rate chef, who agreed that there are “some great custards out there” and added that “Puff pastry: I would do it at the restaurant but not at home”.
There in a nutshell is the argument for convenience food: too much bother, and if classy chefs and Mary Berry do it, why not the rest of us? Delia Smith was the last TV cook to ignite a heated debate about shortcuts, with her pernicious book, How to Cheat at Cooking.
The answer, obviously, is that some things are fine in their most convenient labour-saving form; others just aren’t. And I’d say puff pastry comes into that category. It is time-consuming to make, but no more expensive than a block of butter. It takes clear instructions (I use a Reader’s Digest cookbook) and practice. It also leaks butter as it cooks. But it’s not that difficult.
The result is just very different from the light as air, guaranteed-layers pastry from a packet. The ready-made stuff balloons all right, but it’s less substantial than proper pastry. You really can Taste the Difference.
Ditto custard, which simply involves egg yolks, sugar and milk — though may I emphasise the importance of adding a teaspoon of cornflour to the yolk mix, to stop it curdling? With a little vanilla, it’s simple and sublime; you just have to try not to scramble it.
Crucially, you can control the amount of sugar in the mix. Bird’s has a place in the great scheme of things, but it’s way too sweet. Supermarket fancy custard tastes less good than your own, and costs an awful lot more.
Perhaps the fault lies with cookery programmes that make simple food seem tricky, forever tarting up basic things that just need time and practice.
There’s a serious point here. The cost of living is going up. We need to be able to cook simple things from scratch. Packets and plastic tub food costs more than cooking yourself. Trust me: you can rustle up an apple crumble in 10 minutes. Then take the trouble to make your own custard. Sublime.
