12 Comments
Nov 20Liked by Julia Watson

Motion carried nem con! That cornstarch slimy gloop has no place in a fruit tart. I have a recipe for a galette using walnuts, cream and honey, which is yummy, and nary a spot of cornstarch in sight. French, would you believe? I was interested in the history of the origins of cornflour - never knew any of that! Every day a school day ... Incidentally, I'm a member of a FB group which studies (and in many cases follows) the rationing of WW2; a lot of the recipes include high-fructose corn syrup!

Expand full comment
author

So interested in your FB group's information. I wonder the source of the HFCS. I thought our sweetness during WW2 was from British sugar beet. Did we grown enough maize for HFCS? If not, how did imports get through blockades?

Expand full comment
Nov 20Liked by Julia Watson

Sorry, my fault for not making things clear. Because it's FB, there are members of the group from all over the world, and different countries had different rationing systems and regulations. The HFCS was in a US rationing recipe. That said, we have Americans using British rationing, Brits using American, Aussies using their own, and many sticking mainly to one country, but with excursions into the rationing of others! Because things have changed a bit in the last 80 years or so, most people adapt to the availability of modern ingredients, while sticking to the general ethos of rationing. And it's astonishing how many people say how much weight they've lost, how much money they've saved, and how much better they feel without the modern, processed foods in their diet.

Expand full comment

I'm curious about this very early attribution of HFCS in a recipe, since it's such an industrial product and is not, in my experience, ever called for in home baking. Most records say HFCS was invented in the 1950s. I think what you're referring to is corn syrup (aka Karo, the brand name), which I believe is golden syrup in the UK. Although not exactly a health-food, it doesn't carry the nefarious reputation that HFCS does. I'm quite sure that would be what is called for in WW2 recipes.

Expand full comment
author

Interesting. So HFCS came earlier than I thought. I believe Golden Syrup is made from cane sugar or sugar beet that gets broken down into fructose and glucose.

Expand full comment
author

Rationing did good things to teeth and general healthy eating. My philosophy is, If my grandmother didn't buy it, not should I. She never met ultra processed food.

Expand full comment

I protest,slightly. I hate thin runny juice coming from a fruit pie! Yes, I’m American and no, I don’t use cornstarch but a bit of flour. The pie filling stays in the slice where it belongs 😋

Expand full comment
author

Flour may be a less slimy (I appreciate this is a provocative word) medium than cornstarch. But I'd rather use a method, however extra-steo, to reduce a gush of juices, like sieving the fruits and reducing their liquid over heat, than I would add a starch if any sort which, in my own view, dims the fresh flavour of the fruit

Expand full comment
Nov 20Liked by Julia Watson

I naturally noted the town where Colgate’s factory was located, as it’s my surname (though it only became the family surname when immigration officers failed to understand my grandfather’s Russian name). There is no town of Bergen in New Jersey, which I knew as a New Jersey native, though there is a Bergen County. However it seems that Colgate’s factory was in Jersey City, in Essex County, if it’s the same Colgate which became Colgate-Palmolive. None of this makes cornstarch any more desirable in pies!

Expand full comment
author

You are of course absolutely right! My original copy said Jersey City. My brain is seizing up. Too much cornstarch? I'm relieved you, too, aren't beguiled by that product.

Expand full comment

Tapioca. anyone? In place of cornstarch, I mean.

Expand full comment

Brava, Julia Watson! I shall do this with American pecans although I suspect the rough texture and earthy bitterness of the walnuts dance very gracefully with the sweet thick cream.

Expand full comment