Recipe for :

This recipe for Australian Pear Custard comes from a leaflet published in October 1938 to promote "Delicious Australian Canned Fruits".

The two straplines from the leaflet are:

• Australian sunshine foods are good for you
• It means more money in the Empire . . . (presumably because you buy Australian tinned fruit)

They really knew how to write promotional material back in 1938 so you may enjoy what was written on the leaflet:

PEACHES, Pears, Apricots and Pineapples, ripened to perfection in Australian sunshine, grown, picked and packed by your own kith and kin, snugged away, with sweet Australian cane sugar syrup, in cans of Welsh tinplate!

Australian Canned Peaches, Pears, Apricots and Pineapples are rich with the alluring flavours and wholesome qualities given by fine soil, climate and sunshine. For young and old, these fine fruits are eminently desirable, being appetising, sustaining and always enjoyable.

Time was when only during certain favoured months could you enjoy the fruit so necessary for your health and for giving variety in your diet. Now, Australian Canned Peaches, Pears, Apricots and Pineapples give you the benefit of sunshine fruits all the year.

They are gathered at the point of delicious ripeness, and a few brief hours after being picked the fruit is cooked and sealed in cans, secure from injury or contamination, and then remains ready for long months, even years, to be opened for the pleasures of the table.

Eminent authorities agree that canned fruit, processed under modern conditions, such as obtain in Australia, is entitled to the highest approval as a food. Not only is it nourishing, but it is protected from infection by bacteria. The latter cannot be said of many ordinary foods, which, exposed and unprotected are often in danger of contamination and subject to processes of decay.

What a convenience is canned fruit! It keeps almost indefinitely, takes up a very little space and is ever ready to give the right finishing touch to a meal. It improves breakfasts, lunches, teas, dinners, suppers, picnics. It is an unrivalled standby for emergencies.

From a National and Empire point of view, Australian Canned Peaches, Pears, Apricots and Pineapples, should be bought in preference to similar fruits from foreign sources, because Australia uses the money thus gained to buy British goods.

Further, Australian business is a British family affair, because the Australians are British people, having the same ideals and investments in common, and holding dear, and being ready to fight for, all that is precious to the British race. They have already stood shoulder to shoulder with their kinsfolk at Home in times of trouble, and actually much Australian fruit comes from men who fought for the Empire in the Great War.

Australia is a mighty investment of the British race, and it is wise and prudent for us all to develop it by giving to its industries the support they require. Only by giving to the British settlers in Australia that kind of support which ensures a market for their products can we ensure their success, which success is essential to the task of satisfactorily peopling the Commonwealth and retaining it as a British country.

For all these and many other excellent reasons ask your grocer for Australian Canned Peaches, Pears, Apricots and Pineapples.

Ingredients for Australian Pear Custard

1 small tin Australian Pears
2 Australian Eggs
pint milk
1 oz sugar
¼ oz gelatine
gill syrup
Lemon juice to flavour

*The gill is an imperial unit of measurement, no longer in common use, equal to a quarter of a pint.

How to make Australian Pear Custard

• Cut up the pears and put in a glass dish.

• Make a boiled custard with the eggs, milk and sugar.

• Dissolve the gelatine in the syrup, add the lemon juice, and when cool stir into the custard.

• When on the point of setting pour over the pears.

Australian Canned Peaches, Pears, Apricots and Pineapples