Finally (maybe) saying goodbye to condensed milk

Ashbury’s Peter Miniutti still bids condensed milk farewell (C8), but “if elderly condensed milkaholics developed diabetes in later life, will today’s trick-or-treat generation suffer the same fate?” None of us here would be surprised by that, Peter.

Leichhardt’s Stephanie Edwards has a happier perspective: “Thanks to Column 8, I solved a medical mystery. Even though diabetes runs in my family, I survived it. I now know that this is due to a lack of condensed milk in childhood.

Thank you, too, to the Col8ers too numerous to name who have written about the wonders of a can of condensed milk boiled long enough (on stoves, over campfires, and once in a laundry room) to make caramel, or dulce de leche if you live in an upscale suburb. These memories brought with them many serious warnings to keep the can under water at all times to prevent it from exploding (you have been warned).

“When I was camping with my trout-fishing father in the 1940s and ’50s, every morning my father would scrape the layer of flies off the top of an opened can of condensed milk before using it with his billy tea,” recalls Jennifer Dewar of Double Bay (though it’s now in the Galápagos Islands). “It doesn’t look like any of us were harmed.”

Thrifty reader Phillip Smith from Waterloo wants it to be known: “I baked my Christmas fruitcakes last week. Every year I reuse the brown paper and newspaper crust around the cake tin. One of these linings was crumbling from many years of re-baking.” reporter The date I used was November 1, 1997.”

Turramurra’s Eric Sekula, in a campaign he’s been running for some time now, has something to say about the other great Aussie tube: “Australian travellers’ best friend (after the passport) was the Vegemite tube, which sadly is no longer available. It was an instant breakfast or lunch with bread and was easy and light to throw in your bag. It was far superior to the fragile, heavy jar or large squeeze bottle alternatives.”

Then, on a non-food-related topic – and many thanks for this relief – Kin Wong from Chatswood says: “My wife was listening to a nice song recently and wondered what it was. I knew it and said: Random Truck. I told him it was an old Scottish song. Annie Laurie.”

Column8@smh.com.au

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