Susan didn't follow a recipe – I had to recreate her dishes

The Postie Notes by Mark Gilbert

When Celebrity Home Cook winner Ed Balls was cooking in the competition final, his thoughts were with his mum. He later said he got “quite emotional” because he was making the dishes she taught him.

“If they criticised my shepherd’s pie that would have been 50 years of my life being challenged,” he said.

His kids were the biggest fans of his cooking, with daughter Ellie even asking for a recipe book of his dishes for her 18th birthday.

Ed’s words got me thinking about my late wife Susan’s cooking. She was a naturally good cook and produced all the favourites at the drop of a hat. Stew and dumplings, minced beef pie, steak and kidney pudding, roast dinners with big flat Yorkshire pudding with a doughy bottom and crispy risen sides, not the “puff ball” individual objects marketed as authentic puddings.

Her Victoria sponge and coconut steam pudding with syrup and custard were to die for.

She introduced all her best dishes to the last pub we ran during a 20-year career and made a rod for her own back, because people came from far and wide to sample her delights and there were hardly enough hours in the day to meet the demand.

When we found out that Susan wasn’t going to reach a great age, we agreed on a number of things to do in the time we had left, including a last trip to Las Vegas, where we stayed at the Bellagio in a suite overlooking the famous fountains.

I also asked Susan if she would write down all my favourite recipes, but she said that she never used a recipe and “just produced” the food. So, I suggested that the next time she produced anything, she just wrote down what she put in. She didn’t!

While sorting out “stuff” in the last nine years, I have always hoped that I would eventually find her recipes, perhaps hidden in a cook book. I didn’t!

But being the person I am, I recreated most of her dishes to just about the same standard, it took lots of nips and tucks, but over the years I have now mastered Susan’s recipes and created a few of my own – cheese pastry sausage rolls, Mark’s feelgood flapjack and egg and bacon pie, to name just a few.

I was a bit disappointed not to find any of Susan’s recipes, but whiled sorting out boxes of paperwork that hadn’t seen the light of day for at least 25 years, I came across a recipe in her handwriting, entitled “Vanda’s Biscuits”.

Vanda was an elderly aunt who lived in Vilnius in Lithuania and Susan and her mum visited her after Lithuania was liberated. Susan came back with stories of how poor everyone was and how they bartered for everything and didn’t waste a scrap.

Vanda even “rented” out a fish hook to a neighbour in return for a percentage of anything he caught. I have copied the recipe and sent it to other Lithuanians I know and will try the recipe out myself soon.

In the local area and beyond there are lots of people producing special dishes and bakes. To name a few – Susan’s shortbread; Gladys’ tattie scones, Eliz’s pancakes and Pauline's meringues.

Most families and communities have recipes or people who are known for a particular dish, so if you do have something special, please don’t do a Susan and take the recipe to the grave with you!

Mark Gilbert is a postman based at Bettyhill.

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