Pressing matters

This is my garlic press. I've had it from the very early days of my marriage, which makes it almost 48 years old. It's an odd thing - I don't know what the metal is - aluminium? - and the joint is loose and rattly and always has been. It's very efficient - and I realised today that I'm finding it hard to use.

When I bought this, back about 1970, I did so with a great feeling of sophistication. My mother never, to the best of my knowledge, cooked with garlic, and indeed it was often hard to find in the shops. I'm sure she ate it when on holiday in her beloved Italy, but I never came across it until I started to cook. Funnily enough, today I was making a dish that I associate with these early days, a recipe that a friend wrote out for me, a bake-type spicy dish that I tend to roll out whenever a corporate cooking effort is called for, usually connected with church. I've even had a bishop's wife ask me for the recipe ...

But I digress most wilfully. Point is, it's not a tool for the arthritic thumb joint. So it may well be that my garlic press is consigned to the drawer while I chop my garlic with a sharp knife instead.

But did I mention that it's great for crushing Vitamin C tablets for bread making?