Butter Tarts
Monday on Q, CBC Radio’s wonderful music/arts show, Jian interviewed an author about the robot revolution, a musician, and then a woman who had been tasked with hunting down the history of the butter tart, a truly Canadian desert. They talked about the supposed history of the tart, where to find the best one, and what the ingredients should be (butter, brown sugar, syrup, raisins). It wouldn’t be surprising to members of my family that butter tarts brought back memories of my Grandma.
Butter tarts remind me like no inanimate object of my Grandma. She was the master. Grandma didn’t make a few butter tarts at a time, she made a few dozen. They were stored in the freezer in white margarine tubs, and they were full of sugary deliciousness. I’m sure each butter tart was about a thousand calories, but no family gathering was complete until there was a plate of butter tarts. I remember a few times being allowed to help with the making of Grandma’s butter tarts. She made her own pastry, and did not have a recipe to follow, except the one in her head. She would look into the batter from yards away and tell me it needed more corn syrup, or it didn’t have quite enough butter. It was crazy magic, and it was wonderful (my Mom can do the same thing). Because she would make these tarts dozens at a time, the act of making the tarts would take a full afternoon. Time spent waiting for the tarts to finish was often spent playing Mexican Rummy, a game that doesn’t even closely resemble the game rules I found on the Internets.
My Grandma passed away during the summer of my first year of university. From then on, we have never had butter tarts at a family gathering. The first year, we had butter tart squares but it was the end of the butter tart era. I am glad that I have these simply delicious, buttery awesome items with which to remember my Grandma. I think it’s cool that there is one thing in the world that will always remind me of her. There are other items in the world that remind me of other people, but I don’t think the connection is as strong as with my Grandma and butter tarts. Also, store bought butter tarts suck.
Happy Canada Day everybody.
Lindsay Airport. Best butter tarts I’ve ever had. You eat them with a spoon! It’s worth flying all the way from Sarnia just for that!
I really enjoyed reading this post. Very awesome. I’ll keep it in mind should I run into any outstanding butter tarts.
Miss you lots. Want to see you soon.
I flew into Lindsay for butter tarts from Lake st John yesterday in the nifty buck fifty, they are the best ever, they have so many different flavours!