Probably not the healthiest, but good

[churchilllafemme]

Cream toast, which my wife learned to make in the Midwest U.S., for breakfast today. Toast and a sweet cream gravy in which to dip it. Butter, flour, milk, sugar, and vanilla. I'm sure people have been eating variants of this for hundreds of years.

[Gene]

That looks really good!

I had a taste treat a month or so back - chocolate gravy!

Slathered on a biscuit - it was amazing!!

[churchilllafemme]

This morning we had scrambled eggs and Bisquick biscuits with Southeastern Mills Country Gravy and added sausage. Very little cooking from scratch in this household.

[pausted]

My kind of breakfast, John.

[drmoss_ca]

I believe your 'sweet gravy' is known in the UK as 'instant custard'. All I ever knew for custard when young, it came from the Birds Co in a tub and required mixing with milk and careful slow warming. I was fascinated with it as the cornflour in it made it non-Newtonian as you stirred; runny if poured, but stiffened up as soon as you stirred. Proto-oobleck. These days it is even more instant - just as boiling water and mix (available in the UK but not in Canada). Anyway, the ingredients are the same and the sweet thick goo resulting is the same. Never occurred to me that anyone would dip toast in it, but now I think about it (and I am getting there, albeit slowly) that ambrosial dish called bread and butter pudding is much the same, with the lower levels sodden with soaked up egg custard, and the top delicately crispy if cooked just so. When I first made B&BP I cheated and used instant custard, but the results are better with a true egg custard cooked in situ between and inside the bread, raisins, sugar cinammon, nutmeg and rum. Do not confuse this with industrial strength bread pudding, which is hard slabs of curdled stodge. Stick to the true bread and butter pudding for the distilled essence of English nursery food as still preferred by ex-imperialists everywhere. Carry on.

[Rufus]

Love a good bread and butter pudding and an old fashion sherry trifle.

[brothers]

My wife's family used to have something called bread pudding, and it was a popular treat when they got together for dinners. She still makes it on occasion. It doesn't sound very similar to the one you're discussing, other than the name. But then again, I confess I don't know what she puts in it. Could be identical --- who knows! I believe the recipe was brought in from either Arkansas or Iowa.

[drmoss_ca]

Bread and Butter pudding


Bread Pudding


As they point out, a dry form of bread pudding is the Nelson Slice, a concoction still served as a dessert with the ubiquitous lumpy custard at school dinners in the early seventies. Dry, crumbly and dusted with caster sugar, tasted of mixed spice (I doubt any cuisine in the world other than British mixed all the desired spices - probably cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice - together and sold them commercially). In contrast to the dryness of the Nelson slice, a bread pudding was known in some areas as a 'wet nellie'. How enticing! Some people made their Nelson slice rather wet and encased it in pastry, but I have never seen such an abomination in the flesh.

[fallingwickets]

On the subject of custard, I'm always slightly surprised by the lack of love it gets shown in the usa. American kids are deprived!

clive

[Rufus]

At boarding school there’d be a jug of custard on each dining table at dinner time. One could only guess when it was made, but by the thickness of the skin on the top it wasn’t fresh. I don’t mind custard,but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get it. My wife has a tin of Birds Custard Powder on hand at all times.

[Xring3]

61D3FA27-6E83-43C6-A4B5-B010C12634FF.jpeg (1.86 MiB) Viewed 11558 times

The other day I went to a nearby town (Arnett, Oklahoma) for breakfast. It is a typical American greasy spoon cafe. Half order of biscuits and sausage gravy with coffee. $4.00 and I left a dollar tip.

[fallingwickets]

I never thought i would eat things like biscuits and gravy, but when i go down to SC im at the wafflehouse or similar nearly every morning doing just that

btw, a $1 tip is a bit stingy /jk

clive

[John Rose]

I never thought i would eat things like biscuits and gravy, but when i go down to SC im at the wafflehouse or similar nearly every morning doing just that

Yup.
Culinary opinions can change. I used to think that the very idea of gravy on fries was gross, are you out of your mind, etc.
Now I consider poutine to be quite a treat.

[Rufus]

I never thought i would eat things like biscuits and gravy, but when i go down to SC im at the wafflehouse or similar nearly every morning doing just that

btw, a $1 tip is a bit stingy /jk

clive

I lived in Texas for 10 years where biscuits and gravy are a big culinary thing. I never did develop a taste for either; nor did I get my stomach around such delicacies as chicken fried steak, grits, etc.

[Rufus]

I never thought i would eat things like biscuits and gravy, but when i go down to SC im at the wafflehouse or similar nearly every morning doing just that

Yup.
Culinary opinions can change. I used to think that the very idea of gravy on fries was gross, are you out of your mind, etc.
Now I consider poutine to be quite a treat.

Poutine is the only time I’ll eat chips with gravy, otherwise it’s just slat and malt vinegar.

[Rufus]

Along with poutine two of my favourite Quebec treats are tarte au sucre Francaise and eggs in maple syrup (oeufs dans Le sirop d’erable).

[jww]

... All I ever knew for custard when young, it came from the Birds Co in a tub and required mixing with milk and careful slow warming. I was fascinated with it as the cornflour in it made it non-Newtonian as you stirred; runny if poured, but stiffened up as soon as you stirred. ....

I drink this stuff directly from the jug when it accompanies pudding. My wife's family always have extra jugs on hand when I am around. Last time, her dad's wife did one jug just for me and told everyone else to leave it alone. It was a good 1/2 liter of goo -- pour it on anything and enjoy. Best with apple crumble and during Christmas have it on your mince pies and fruitcake. Can't go wrong.

[fallingwickets]

an american oddity: complete and utter lack of custard luv.

weird!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

clive

[Rufus]

... All I ever knew for custard when young, it came from the Birds Co in a tub and required mixing with milk and careful slow warming. I was fascinated with it as the cornflour in it made it non-Newtonian as you stirred; runny if poured, but stiffened up as soon as you stirred. ....

I drink this stuff directly from the jug when it accompanies pudding. My wife's family always have extra jugs on hand when I am around. Last time, her dad's wife did one jug just for me and told everyone else to leave it alone. It was a good 1/2 liter of goo -- pour it on anything and enjoy. Best with apple crumble and during Christmas have it on your mince pies and fruitcake. Can't go wrong.

Wendell you wouldn’t have got along with the custard we’d be served at boarding school: once you’d broken through the skin that had formed on the top there was a yellow gelatinous mass underneath which could only be spooned out. Nonetheless, I still like custard, just not the abomination served up at school.

[drmoss_ca]

Amazingly, there was always one kid at each table who wanted the skin. Thick and chewy and nasty as it was. My school custard came in four varieties, the pale yellow stuff being commonest, but occasionally it would be chocolate, pink, or white.

Whilst we talk of fake custard, I'll note that the tinned custard powder requires the use of milk and sugar to make, and it will mean washing a pan. However, you get to control the amount of sugar. Not available in Canada, but easily found in the UK, is an instant version: just add boiling water and it's done. This is a bright yellow and sickly sweet, being a cartoon version of the real thing (pacé, you French*) for idiots unable to go beyond the boiling of a kettle. A good example of the weaponization of sugar by the prepared food industry.

*Of course, crème anglaise can be made with eggs, milk and sugar, and once you get a feel for the many forms of custard that can be made with these ingredients by varying proportions or whipping the egg whites, you enter the splendid world of baked custards, creme caramel, soufflés etc.