Nothing but the best

[desperance]

I made meat-paste sandwiches for my lunch.

It may be my greatest invention.

When I was a kid, meat-paste sandwiches were a regular part of a child's diet, at least around our way. Shippam's meat-paste, to be specific: a soft grey-brown oozy stuff that lacked any identifiable texture or flavour, spread on buttered white pre-sliced bread.

I thought I had grown away from it for ever, except that shortly after I got my first flat in Newcastle, twenty-some years back, a couple of friends turned up unexpectedly, newly back from travels overseas; and she refused coffee and asked for meat-paste sandwiches, and thus I deduced that she was pregnant.

And no meat-paste has passed my threshold, let alone my lips, from then till this. But lo! This is a fine thing:

Take cold poached brisket, chop it into chunks (whoops! a couple of chunks just slid off the board there - but fortunately, there are cats circling below...) and drop it into your hyper-special new blender. Whizz to a soft pulpy paste. Mix in lots of freshly-grated horseradish from the garden, mayonnaise and mustard. Salt and pepper. A bit more horseradish. Like that, until yummy.

Spread on buttered granary, and eat. Fighting off cats the while.

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Oh, god. I had forgotten Toast Toppers. I ate one or two. Cornflour and processed ham, were the flavours I remember. I did not like it even then, when I was a hungry teen.