Fond Junket memories from the Midwest
On a hot Midwest day this week, the following popped up in our family’s group social media page: “Does anyone have Granny and Granddad’s Homemade Ice Cream recipe?” Of course, the matriarch of the family (my mother) posted a photo of it, which I am attaching. The next day, another cousin asked, “What is junket?” That piqued my curiosity. I knew what junket was, but what I did not know was that Junket was celebrating their 150th Birthday. Nor did I know that Junket was in St. Louis, MO! As a fellow Missourian, when I discovered this, I shared YOUR STORY with all of the aunts/uncles/cousins/nieces/nephews in our group. Then I decided that I needed to share OUR story with YOU! My mother writes: “My family was poor, but we didn’t starve because we lived on a farm. Mother raised a lot of chickens and sold eggs to the grocer in town. She also sold cream since we had one milk cow, but we ate plenty on our cereal and made HOMEMADE ICE CREAM at least once a week in the summer time. (This would have been in the 1940s.) Their recipe is a little different from the one on your website (perhaps it’s because theirs was a family of 10!) My mother remembers making homemade ice cream with HER grandfather. I remember making it whenever we visited my grandparents–even over Christmas vacation! While Granny was in the kitchen, scalding the milk and preparing the Junket, Granddad would put ice in a gunny sack and break it up. That sack would then be placed on top of the ice cream machine to keep everything cold. As grand-children, we got to turn the handle, youngest first (according to birth year), when it was the easiest to crank–until eventually it would get too hard for us to turn and one of the uncles would finish it off. Then we would all indulge in that delicious homemade ice cream! Thank you Junket Co. for the memories!