Morrisons Instant Custard - 76g

In British food, custard is less a pudding than the thing that makes a pudding count. School dinners, Sunday crumble, a midweek sponge: the yellow jug sat in the middle of the table and everyone kept one eye on how much was left.

People in Canada go looking for it because they remember a particular custard, not just any custard. The Morrisons one was a fixture of the weekly shop for a lot of families, especially up north, and the taste of it is a quick route back to somebody's kitchen table.

It comes in a small 76g pack that sits flat at the back of the cupboard and waits patiently for pudding night. The instructions are on the pack, the stirring is down to you, and it is the reason a tin of fruit suddenly counts as dessert.

Morrisons is the big Bradford-born supermarket, and its own-label shelf is the stuff of a proper British larder. Custard tends to go in the basket next to golden syrup, a steamed sponge or the makings of a crumble, because nobody has ever wanted custard on its own for long.