Apple Gob

Era: 1960s

“My favourite food to eat when I was younger was a
Sunday roast cooked by my Mom. My Dad only inputted
into the cooking when he did his curries, and he’d make a
terrible mess of the kitchen. My parents liked to eat tripe
and onions. I couldn’t bring myself to try it as it looked
awful and it smelt awful.

My Mom used to bake old fashioned suet puddings, egg
custards and apple pies. We grew up all looking forward
to my Mom’s puddings after Sunday lunch. Our kitchen
was big but basic, my Mom would cook on a daily basis,
so everything was fresh. My Mother used to work on
a market stall, and the thing she would sell a lot of was
spotty bananas, to our West Indian customers. We were
lucky to have so much fresh fruit and veg due to my Mum
and Dad’s market stall business. If we were hungry, my
Mum would suggest that we have an apple and a lump of
cheese.

She loved making a suet pudding with apples and
bilberries in it and we would call it Apple Gob as once
you’d eaten it you couldn’t move, and it would turn the
custard purple. Steaming puddings would mean that the
kitchen was full of steam, but it was just tradition.”
Jennifer Smedley