Thank you to all the Kats who have contributed recently. Please keep the recipes and requests coming. This column depends on your participation.
After reading about my experience with burning fingers after preparing some hot peppers, Betty Cameron sent this tip for cooling the burn: Soak fingers in milk for 1 to 2 minutes.
Another reader had success using vinegar. It relieved the burning on her fingers, and in a separate incident when a grandchild ate a cherry pepper thinking it was a cherry tomato, a swish of vinegar in her mouth soothed the burn.
Cameron also uses milk to tame the bite of red onion.
"Just soak [the onion] in milk for a few minutes, rinse off in water and put on your salad."
I heard from roughly a dozen Kats regarding Sid Wurtz's letter about making custard as a child.
The vast majority believe the product Wurtz remembers is Junket, a rennet based mix used for making custards, ice cream and other desserts.
"I think my mother used Junket to make ice cream mix which she put in trays in the freezer, removed it when it was frozen, beat it until fluffy and then put it back in the freezer. This was in the 1940s, soon after we got our first electric 'ice box'," writes Chloye Bailey Pogue.
"As a child a special Swedish treat was prepared by my grandmother which was a custard made from fresh milk and used rennet tablets (Junket rennet tablets are found in the pudding section at the grocery store). This may be the ingredient he has been searching for," writes Vicki Karolson.
"I think what Mr. Wurtz may be remembering was rennet pudding. Rennet came in little tablets and could be used in puddings, custards and homemade ice cream," writes Maureen Leverett. "I haven't thought about it in years, and don't even know if it is still available. I, too, remember all the cooking and stirring. Good memories!"
"The comment I have for Mr. Wurtz is too simple to actually be the solution he is looking for: Rennet. When I was a young girl my mom would occasionally purchase packages of the stuff and make 'refrigerator' ice cream. She did not like the taste of eggs in her homemade fridge ice cream and didn't believe in using cream, so she used whole milk.
"Somehow, she managed to make chocolate ice cream in one end of a deep aluminum pan and vanilla in the other, without using a physical barrier. To this day, I do not know how she accomplished that feat. My brother preferred chocolate and my preference was vanilla. She started very early in the day so that she could stir the ice cream several times as it was in its earlier stages of freezing and it was perfect by dinner time dessert. My sibling and I thought the ice cream was super delicious," writes Jo Ann Watts.
Junket is still made and available at some grocery stores, including Wal-Mart. More information about Junket can be found at the company's website, junketdesserts.com.
Another Kat remembers a similar product from My-T-Fine.
REQUEST
• Bread like that served at the beloved and missed The Villa Italian Restaurant in Little Rock for Rosemary Lewis and Mike Compton. "We've been searching for a bread that's similar to theirs so we can attempt to duplicate it but can't find anything close. No wonder! After acquiring an old copy of The Villa's menu today, we saw that it's homemade. Which led me to writing you in the hopes that Mr. [Ken] Shivey would share The Villa's homemade bread recipe and possibly even the Cheesy Garlic Bread recipe if that's not asking too much. I know it won't be the same, but with your help & the bread recipe I think we could come close to re-creating our dream Italian dinner that we miss so much -- manicotti, fettuccine carbonara, Villa salad, and cheesy garlic bread," Lewis writes.
Send recipe contributions, requests and culinary questions to Kelly Brant, Idea Alley, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203; email:
kbrant@arkansasonline.com
Please include a daytime phone number.
Food on 08/03/2016