Wednesday, May 18, 2005
My-T-Fine memories
Larry Bly
Larry Bly runs an ad agency and does freelance writing in the Roanoke area.
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My dear Aunt Tootsie, who raised me, had something you seldom see anymore: brand loyalty.
She's rip down the aisles of the local Safeway Store, throwing into the basket her old standby's -- Velveeta cheese, Miracle Whip, and My-T-Fine pudding and pie filling. She wouldn't have thought of buying something else simply because it was cheaper or on sale. Nope, she'd take an old Lipton Tea (another favorite brand) box and write out her list of items on the back of it.
I went half my life before I realized you could make notes on regular white paper. It was a generational thing. She and my Uncle Pete came up through the end of the Depression and had to scrimp and save to get through World War II. The back of tea boxes was plenty good for making lists of groceries, thank you.
Recently, a catalog came in the mail, and much to my surprise, it was brimming with old products (some hard-to-find or out of general production) and names from my childhood, including the elusive My-T-Fine pudding and pie filling. The Jel Sert Co. of Illinois is not only still in business, but owns a lot of other familiar brands. I guess it's the distribution that keeps it off our shelves in Roanoke. But the Vermont Country Store catalog had it, right there on page 74! My hands shook as I read the copy: "Still tastes just like homemade." The secret of Toot's homemade lemon pies revealed. I remember the box, the typeface, the artwork, and, mostly, the flavor.
My-T-Fine brand was established in 1918 as the first packaged pudding mix in the United States. All My-T-Fine products are certified Kosher by the Orthodox Union and carry either the OU or OUD symbol. It comes in eight premium flavors: chocolate, lemon, vanilla, butterscotch, tapioca vanilla, chocolate fudge, pumpkin and tiramisu. Heck, we didn't even know what a tiramisu was when I was growing up -- or where to hunt for one. But we sure knew the natural flavor of either the lemon or chocolate pie mix. Yum.
My hand shaking, I wrote a check and sent it off to the Vermont Country Store and waited by the mailbox for my My-T-Fines to arrive. I got a ton of them, just in case they go out of business or I lose track of them again. So if you're ever in the mood for lemon pie ...
Much to my surprise, they've updated the old product. You can microwave it. And the old double-boiler that Tootsie used is no longer necessary. Just follow the simple directions and mix it up in a pan right on the stove. It used to have a little jell cap type thing in the powder, which would melt and release the flavor. That's gone as well, but the flavor's still there. I created in mere minutes the most mouth-watering lemon pudding you can imagine. It recreated a portion of my childhood I thought lost forever.
For those needing to jump-start their past, Vermont Country Store offers tons of other products, food and non-food related. Yearning for the lovely fragrance of Evening in Paris? They've got that, in the original little cobalt spray bottles. Tootsie had those all over the house when I was growing up. How about that orange Tangee lipstick women used to wear? Got that, too.
I even bought a jar of Seven Seas Green Goddess dressing. Remember the taste of that? It was created at San Francisco's Palace Hotel back in the '20s. This creamy dressing is still made by Kraft in limited quantities. Yes, I bought some of that! I've decided that it tastes a lot like the Carlos' house dressing, which is an avocado and garlic affair. They've reinvented Green Goddess without even knowing it!
Another thing: If you look at the sodium content on the cans of famous New England Clam Chowder or the Green Goddess, you'll flip. It's amazing how much salt we ate as kids. While it may be true that you can never go home again, you can certainly bring a few of those memories back. I've had a great time being a child again, if only for a few minutes here and there. And it was MY-T-FINE.
