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Lemon Curd
Take one pound of sifted sugar, the rind and juice of three large lemons, six ounces of clarified butter, and the yolks of twelve eggs. Melt the sugar and butter by very gentle heat, and stir in the grated rind and the strained juice of the lemons. Stir all together until it is like honey. Have ready in a basin the yolks of the eggs, carefully beaten and strained. Add the warm mixture to the eggs by degrees, and beat it for several minutes. If not sufficiently thick return it to the pan for a few minutes. When quite cold it should be put in small jars, covered with bladder or vegetable parchment, and stored like jam.
A conventional egg-yolk lemon curd, richer than most modern versions and generous in quantity. The only part that has genuinely been overturned is the storage.
- The hinge: gentle heat throughoutYolk proteins begin to set from about 150F (65C), and a curd is usually taken only to around 170F (77C); the sugar raises that threshold somewhat, but the mixture will still scramble if pushed. Work in a heatproof bowl over barely simmering water, or in a heavy pan over the lowest flame, and stir constantly until the curd coats the back of a spoon and holds a line drawn through it.
- Storage, and why the original is wrongBladder or vegetable parchment tied over a jar is a dust cover, not a seal, and a butter-and-yolk preserve is nowhere near acidic or sugary enough to keep at room temperature the way jam does. Modern practice is to refrigerate lemon curd and use it within about two weeks, or freeze it. Do not shelf-store it as written; tested home-canning procedures for citrus curd exist, but they are specific formulations and this is not one of them.
- Sifted sugarThis means fine sugar passed through a sieve to remove lumps: caster or superfine sugar is the closest match. Granulated works but takes longer to dissolve into the butter.
- Clarified butterSix ounces of clarified butter means six ounces after clarifying, and clarifying costs roughly a quarter of the weight, so start with about 8 oz (225 g) of unsalted butter. Plain melted butter can be substituted.
- Strain the yolksPressing beaten yolks through a fine sieve removes the chalazae and any membrane, and it is the difference between a glossy curd and one flecked with white threads. Strain the finished curd as well if you want it perfectly smooth.
- Lemons and rindThree large lemons give roughly 1/2 cup (120 ml) juice and 3 tablespoons of zest. Use unwaxed fruit, grate only the coloured outer layer, and keep the bitter white pith out.
- YieldAbout 2 lb of finished curd, roughly 3 1/2 to 4 cups, or four half-pint jars. Halve the recipe unless you are giving jars away.
Cassell's, compiling its Dictionary of Cookery in the 1870s and 80s for households that had a range and a store cupboard but no refrigeration, files lemon curd with the preserves because that was its place on the Victorian table: a filling for tartlets and layer cakes and a spread for bread and butter at tea. The name is generally traced to an older and quite different preparation, in which cream was curdled with lemon juice and drained to give a lemon-flavoured curd cheese; the modern butter-and-yolk version borrowed the word and kept it. The proportions here, twelve yolks to a pound of sugar, presumably belong to a kitchen where whites were being used up in meringues, icings and clarified soups, and where, one imagines, nobody was counting the eggs.