Chocolate pudding was the first dessert I ever remember making. I was about 12 years old and there was this exciting new product in my life. It was called instant pudding…not fast, not quick, but instant. It was instant bliss for a 12-year-old mainly because it was so easy to make.
First, you waited until Saturday night when your parents usually went out. Then you took a box out of the cupboard. Then you put some milk on the stove to boil. Then you poured the powder in the box into the milk and gave it a stir and went to watch Hockey Night In Canada on the big new 17-incher.
Then, when you heard and smelt the overflowing milk burning on the electric element, you ran back to the kitchen rapidly repeating that favorite new word that Bad Bradley had taught you. You then waited for it to cool just enough so it didn’t burn the roof of your mouth and ate half of it. The other half was then placed in the icebox to cool, set and be consumed between the second and third periods of the hockey game. Oh and one more thing. As you ate it, you sang the J-E-L-L-O jingle from The Jack Benny Show.
I never eat instant pudding anymore. I haven’t for years. I guess I don’t eat it now for the same reason I did eat it then: Lots and lots of sugar. But, when I’m in Mexico, I still eat chocolate pudding.
Along both the Pacific and Caribbean coasts, diospyros nigra trees grow and, on diospyros nigra trees, grow black sapote fruit. They’re related to the persimmon and look a little like an ugly, green tomato. You don’t see them much outside of Mexico because black sapote suffers from travel sickness. You see, it has to be very ripe before you eat it and, when it’s very ripe, it’s very creamy inside and when it’s very creamy inside, the brittle, crusty peel easily breaks.
Slice a black zapote fruit in half and inside you’ll find, you guessed it, chocolate pudding. Well, OK, not exactly. It looks a lot like chocolate pudding and it tastes a little like chocolate pudding. And, best of all, when I hold a half in one hand and a spoon in the other hand, I’m a 12-year-old kid again watching “Teeder” Kennedy fire a cannonating shot at the Montreal goal.
If you live in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, as I do in the winter, you’ll find black sapote or zapote negro or zapote prieto, as it’s sometimes called, at almost any market where they sell fruit and vegetables; if you only shop at supermarkets, you’ll usually find them in Soriana. If you don’t find them anywhere, well I guess you’ll have to go to the cupboard, take out a box…
I didn’t think you’re old enough to remember Teeder (after all, he retired in ’57). Would have thought you’re more of a Big M fan. Or even Eddie the Entertainer.
Yes, that old. Remember the M raising the cup and no one ever as colorful as Eddie.
They don’t sell boxed chocolate pudding here
There were(are) two types of jello chocolate pudding…instant is made with COLD milk and just needs to be beaten, with mixer, OR shaken(with tight lid)!!…thickens more in fridge in 20 minutes(altho’ can be eaten right away, runnier) thus called INSTANT….the other one is cooked as you said, better if turned down and stirred so no lumps…running to cupboard now to check if there’s one in the back, maybe old….as have a sudden craving
Your first mistake was boiling the milk. Instant pudding is poured straight into cold milk and stirred until it thickens. Voila! Instant pudding! With Cook and Serve pudding, the powder and cold milk are mixed together in a pot then heated over medium heat and stirred constantly until the mixture boils, then allowed to cool slightly to thicken a little more before eating. I know, because warm Cook and Serve chocolate pudding is still one of my comfort foods. For those pudding snobs turn up their noses, I always make my banana pudding from scratch.
Zapote negro can be fired up several notches. Separate the peel and seeds, put the pulp in the blender, add orange juice and sugar and give it a whizz. The best dessert in the world. Sometimes served with sliced bananas as a garnish.
Jello Whip and Chill was my fave in the 60’s. Chocolate Mousse for the inept…
I bought one of the fruit today at a corner tienda in Col. San Antonio. Thanks for the information about Black Sapote fruit. What a treat! I’ll go back and buy a few more. I had not heard of it until I read your article. Today I posted photos on Facebook and included kudos to you for your piece. Fun to eat.