Sweet things in our lives

Sweet things

I was in a supermarket recently and having procured my shopping items I made my way to the till. As I was standing in the queue, waiting my turn to pay I was totally bamboozled by the huge array of sweets and nibbles on display in the queuing corridor. I was gobsmacked by the number of people who picked up a bar of some sort. These bars were all high on sugar levels guaranteeing to keep blood sugar readings up at stratospheric levels not to mention contributing to the increase in obesity levels.

When I was born in 1947 the second world war had just ended, and war time austerity and rationing were still influencing food supplies. Most people had gardens which they cultivated and were self-sufficient in potatoes and veggies while most people baked their own bread.

There was a narrow range of food supplies available in the small number of shops, in the pre supermarket era, in towns and villages around Ireland.

We were not bombarded by social media and advertising as TV was non-existent.

Meals were very straight forward and simple with meat and veg being the routine stable diet with fish added in if you lived near the coast, which we did.

After dinner we had the occasional apple tart and cream. Desserts were simpler and were mainly confined to the fine dining on Sundays. Most families had the Sunday roast and vegetables with plenty of home-made meaty, juicy gravy followed by a dessert of some sort. The sherry trifle made with jelly, sponge, custard and a generous glass of sherry was quite popular in many homes.

I must say I just loved the Sunday apple tart made using Bramley apples, in season, with some cloves added in for added flavour. It was always served with warm custard and fresh cream purchased from Lee Strand Creamery, Tralee.

Stewed apple and ice cream was another great favourite while we also loved the rhubarb tart early on in the year while it was in season

My mother regularly made cup-cakes for us in that battered little special baking tray she used, with each cake lovingly filled into the grease proofed paper lining. They were plain, some iced and some had added currants or glace cherries which were my favourites. My granny Curran had a big influence here as she brought the recipe for these back from America, or so I was told.

More relations baked fairy cakes. These were the European or British version of the  cup cake and were lighter in texture. I suppose you could say they were closely related.

And then where would we be without the ever tasty, delicious jam tarts. These were to die for. They were flat little pastries, oven baked and filled with homemade raspberry, strawberry or gooseberry jam. They were special treats.

In both our granny’s houses, and in our own home around festive times, we had our favourite, ‘The Porter Cake’, which was a great rich fruitcake with a bottle of `Guinness added. We always ate it with a generous spreading of full fat Irish Creamery butter on each slice.

We lived near the sea and carrageen moss, a type of seaweed, was freely available. Most families around boiled this into a jelly as it was a great cure for colds and flus. There were times when we added milk and sugar, and we used it as a dessert.

All our houses and later my mother-in-law made lovely bread and butter pudding. This was a great family favourite. It was a simple dessert with the buttered bread layered in a dish with some sultanas and raisins added and baked in the oven. Once again, the ever-popular custard powder was called into action. Milk was added and a nice pouring custard was poured over the mixture, and it was delicious.

As we grew into the sixties, we were introduced to O Mahoney’s sponge cakes with the two layers of sponge with cream or jam in the middle with a good dusting of icing sugar sprinkled on top.

Then advertising was more prevalent, and the ever-popular Swiss roll was introduced into our lives. This little rolled delight added a new dimension to our palates. There was an increasing awareness of the wider culinary world.

I loved to eat any of the above with my favourite drink which was always cocoa made in hot milk. My granny introduced me to this early on in my life and I was 17 when I tasted my first cup of Barry’s tea.

When we were going to school, we had to pass Mr Harmon’s sweet shop in Castle Street, Tralee. We gorged our eyes on all the jars of sweets he had on display, and you could go in and buy your penny worth of your favourite. Do you remember the penny, that large copper coin with the hen on one side and the harp on the other side that gave you the millionaire feeling?  While you were making up your mind on how to spend your lucre, he was making up his little paper shaped tóisín, a cone shaped container for the sweets. I remember all the hard-boiled sweets he had. There were pick and mix, clove rocks, barley sugars, acid drops, humbugs, fox’s glacier mints and fruit sweets. He had bulls’ eyes cough drops Aniseed balls and the dreaded gob stoppers.

In our grocers shop they stocked the delectable ‘Cleeves Toffees’ that Limerick based company that is still thriving. As their blurb goes ‘with 143 years of expertise Cleeve’s brings you a taste of joy and rich Irish heritage in every bite’.

Yes, they were all delicious. It’s a wonder any of us have a tooth left in our heads because we ate so many of them in our youth.

Then I can recall the time when all those great boxes of Mackintosh Quality Street with all the coloured wrapping paper appeared. They came in large multicoloured tin boxes, and they were well advertised on posters and newspapers. They were special.

When I went to college in Dublin in 1965, we were based near the Lemon’s Pure Sweets factory up the Glasnevin Road. We were regular visitors to get our free samples. Mind you we also did regular tours of Guinness Brewery for our free glass of their brew to balance out the sweetness in our lives.

Nowadays the world has changed with children and adults being bombarded with advertising, influencers and social media to purchase a greater variety of food and nibbles most of which they could live without and live a healthier life.

I enjoyed my youthful sweetness in life period, and I think we had more fun and less stress in our lives than the present generation. We lived simpler lives

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