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Lemon Jelly
Juice and rind of 2 lemons 1 cup sugar 3 eggs (well beaten) ¼ pound butter Cook in double boiler, stirring until like thick cream.
Put away in jars, in a cool place. Will keep for months.
This is lemon curd under an older name, and it behaves like any egg-thickened custard: gentle heat, constant motion, and no boiling. The only part of the original that should be ignored outright is the storage advice.
- Do not keep it for monthsA butter-and-egg curd held in jars in a cool larder is exactly the food that modern practice keeps refrigerated. Make it, chill it, and use it within a week or two; the "will keep for months" line belongs to a period of cold cellars and different expectations.
- The hinge: temperature, not timeTake the mixture to about 170-175F, where it coats a spoon and holds a drawn line. Much above that the eggs risk curdling and the curd turns grainy; the double boiler is specified in place of direct heat for exactly that reason.
- ¼ pound butterFour ounces, or one US stick, 115 g. Cut it into pieces and add it a few at a time so it emulsifies rather than pooling.
- RindZest only, taken off with a fine grater or rasp before juicing. Any white pith carried in will make the finished curd bitter.
- EggsThree whole eggs give a firm, slightly opaque curd suitable for spreading between cake layers. Using yolks alone gives a richer, looser filling, but the original clearly intends whole eggs.
- Strain itPouring the finished curd through a fine sieve catches the chalazae and any set flecks of egg, and is the difference between "thick cream" and something merely close to it.
- Yield and useRoughly 2 cups, enough to fill a two-layer cake or a nine-inch tart shell. It thickens noticeably as it cools, so pull it from the heat while it still looks slightly loose.
Lemon curd of this kind was well established in British and North American home cookery by the late nineteenth century, sold and served as a preserve-like spread for bread and as a cake filling, and it turns up under a run of names — lemon cheese, lemon butter, lemon honey and, as here, lemon jelly. None of them involve rennet, gelatine or honey; the words simply marked a thick, spreadable, fruit-flavoured preserve. Its placement in the Frostings and Fillings chapter of the Five Roses Cook Book — a flour-company promotional cookbook assembled from recipes sent in by Canadian housewives — points to its use as a filling, where a sharp note offset a sweet crumb.