Of course I can make the 'real' stuff too. But it is quite unusual for working class people of my parent's generation to make it that way. Bird's custard is great! And I can't believe you never had it! Didn't you have school dinners? It was originally invented because of an egg allergy. Bird's
Eye... I thought that was fishy stuff?
school dinners - no I was an anorexic teenager and generally spent all of my lunchtime, and any break, before and after school in the library studying because once out of school until I had collected my baby brother and sister, fed them, entertained them, bathed them and put them to bed, I didn't get anytime to get homework done and having been sent to a private school we would typically have 3 hours of homework a night to get done and more at the weekends. So I would make the most use of the time I had at school because I would not stop until around 8pm and then needed to get any remaining homework done. Up early to finish anything not done before getting them up, feeding them, .... and getting them off to either the childminder or in the case of my sister, nursery school which was conveniently just around the corner from the school I went to - convenient for my parents that is. There was many a time that my little sister attended registration with me in the mornings and then I used the 15 min assembly or chapel time to get her to nursery and get myself to class...
As for birds eye custard. TBH I loved the one that Boots did a very long time ago in their diabetic range - it wasn't too sweet. I used to eat a ton of that. Then well, I made it from scratch when it was discontinued because I saw little point in adding milk to the following list "Sugar, Modified Starch, Whey Powder, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Cream Powder, Milk Proteins, Thickeners (Carboxymethyl Cellulose, Carrageenan), Flavourings, Colours (Beta Carotene, Annatto)" when I could make it using rice flour or cornflour, milk and sugar and add my own vanilla essence. I wasn't fussed about ensuring it looked dark yellow and if I wanted to I used an egg as well. I was brought up to avoid any artificial flavourings and colours because they were banned in the house due to my other brother having a hyperactivity disorder triggered by most of the following "Thickeners (Carboxymethyl Cellulose, Carrageenan), Flavourings, Colours (Beta Carotene, Annatto" which are E numbers named because E number have such a bad reputation now in the UK.
And of course now, "Sugar, Modified Starch,
Whey Powder, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil,
Cream Powder,
Milk Proteins, Thickeners (Carboxymethyl Cellulose, Carrageenan), Flavourings, Colours (Beta Carotene, Annatto)" in bold will all kill me! Mind you with all of that added in the way of extras you really ought to be able to make it using water! I honestly have no idea if it is an add water or an add milk (or anything else for that matter).
Sorry I have just read that that is the list for the low fat version.
The traditional version is "Cornflour, Salt, Colour (Annatto), Flavouring"
so why bother buying it? You have to add what? Milk and sugar? you may as well add milk, sugar and cornflour and not bother about the colour really just like I do! Add a touch of vanilla in the way of vanilla bean paste or essence and you have your own and it is cheaper! At least that version (depending on the flavourings which are not listed!) shouldn't kill me.