Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Rest in Pieces

Today

Last night I watched. mesmerised, as a heavy item fell from the worktop and smashed straight onto my mixing bowl which I'd just placed in the dishwasher. I bewailed this fact on Facebook and Beatrice demanded a blog.

In My Day

Any family that does serious cookery will have a large mixing bowl. Mamma used to have a ceramic one which was beige on the outside and white inside. Although. bizarrely, she used to tip pastry ingredients straight onto a wooden baking board and mix them there, the mixing bowl was used for everything else.

I can't remember when I bought mine, which was Pyrex; at least forty years ago, I think. The inside of the bowl had myriad marks where spoons and mixers had scraped the sides. It has spent long hours sitting in airing cupboards, holding bread dough as it rose overnight. Cakes and pastry have been mixed therein. Eggs have been whisked and cream whipped, nut and cottage cheese loaves have received the final stirrings. 

Apples have been pushed through sieves into it to make apfelmus. And I couldn't make my famous spinach roulade without this bowl. 

Many a Shrove Tuesday has been celebrated by making pancake mixture in the bowl from which I would dip cupfuls to pour straight into the frying pan.

Children have excitedly given the Christmas pudding a stir and made a wish, or have happily dipped their hands into flour and butter to make scones. And, of course, they were always allowed to "lick the bowl" after cake mixture had gone in the oven.

The bowl also did service at parties to hold industrial sized quantities of potato salad.

Becky asked me if it was the one that Paul once used disastrously to make instant whip. No, that was using a smoked glass fruit bowl that had been Mamma's. Bored with the prospect of whisking by hand, he decided that the best tool was his power drill. Somehow he attached my rotary whisk to the machine and got going. I went into the kitchen to find out what the noise was to see Instant Whip and shards of glass flying everywhere. We dumped the bowl, together with its splinter-filled mixture and went without Instant Whip that night.

I shall have to buy another one today, Pyrex again, I think. Pyrex is guaranteed for 10 years against the effects of heat, but when broken it smashes into an unbelievably large number of pieces that spread a long way, rivalling the experience with the drill.

I hope that this one will last long enough to be passed down to my grandchildren.


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