Most of us when we were little tykes were serenaded with nursery rhymes. One of which involved the legendary Miss Muffet. It went “Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet eating her curds and whey. Along came a spider and sat down beside her and frightened Miss Muffet away.” As a tyke I was intrigued by the story and my imagination would run wild – and I didn’t even know what “curds and whey” was.
First of all, I wondered if it was a big spider like a tarantula or was it more in the itsy-bitsy realm. Then I asked someone what “curds and whey” was. Apparently, it is a natural separation of milk although it can be helped along with acids like vinegar making it rather sour. In short about the only thing that I could think of worse to eat, despite what they did in England, was trying to eat runny grits. I did find out much later that in Turkey they call it “kes” and it is used as an aphrodisiac – which you can’t do with runny grits. You can ignore this last comment, if you wish, as this article so far is about a nursery rhyme not what they might do in Turkey.
Now as mentioned above, I was a tyke, but I analyzed the poem and came to a conclusion. That is that Miss Muffet could not stand curds and whey and was only eating it because her mother said, “You sit there on your tuffet until you eat every bit of the curds and whey – or else!” Thus, when she saw an itsy-bitsy spider near her, she screamed and ran to her mother and said, “There is an awful ugly spider who sat next to me”. The mother who didn’t care for spiders either took off her shoe and while screaming beat the spider to a pulp. Miss Muffet noted the battle, swiped a cookie and went out to play.
Now that you understand the rhyme better, you will feel more natural reading it to your grand-kids. Despite this helpful comment, a few of you are probably saying to your selves, “Why is this nut going on about curds and whey anyhow?” Just have a little patience and your curiosity will be satisfied. What has happened in today’s world is further evidence that things never really change. The modern health people are of the belief that whey is very good for you, and should be consumed in vast quantities. You do not even have to sit on a tuffet while building up your protein levels.
Please note that we are just talking about whey and not curds. I am not certain what they do with the curds – perhaps that is how they make runny grits for all I know. If you want whey all you have to do is go into any grocery store, drug store or just about any place you can imagine. You no longer have to look for a specialty store. Whey is everywhere in all its glory and even tricked up with every flavor you can anticipate, including fig. There is no question that we live at a splendid time in the span of mankind. I do wonder though how they accept this phenomena in England – and probably Turkey.
Now The Blonde in the house has noted this marvel of a delightful source of what I need in order to continue my march through life. Thus, I now have a large supply of whey that you mix with whatever liquid that works and you can stand to drink with it. However, I have stood my ground and do not have any fig flavored whey!
Barry Evans writes about Life in The Villages.
