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Lemon Filling
Take one-half cup of cold water; one cup of sugar; one even tablespoon of flour; one lemon (rind and juice); one egg (yolk only); one teaspoon of butter. Place two tablespoons of the water on the flour, and stir until the paste is perfectly smooth; then add the well-beaten egg, and beat again vigorously with a fork. Place the rest of the water, the sugar, the lemon juiec
A stovetop lemon curd thickened with flour rather than cornstarch, of the sort meant to be spread between cake layers while still warm enough to level itself. Note that the printed text breaks off mid-sentence; the finish has to be inferred from the method.
- The missing endingThe page stops at "the lemon juiec". The method most likely continues by heating the remaining water, sugar, lemon juice and rind, adding that to the flour-and-yolk paste, and cooking until it thickens; where exactly the butter goes in cannot be recovered from the surviving text.
- Temper, do not dumpThis is the hinge. The yolk is raw in a thin flour slurry; if you add it to boiling syrup all at once you get lemon-scented scrambled egg. Add the hot liquid to the cold paste in a thin stream, whisking, then return it to the pan.
- Cook the flour outOnce thickened, hold it at a bare simmer for two to three minutes, stirring constantly. Flour-thickened fillings taste pasty if pulled the instant they set, and the starch needs a boil to reach full thickening power.
- "One even tablespoon"Level, not heaped — roughly 8 g of flour. That is a modest amount for two-thirds of a cup of liquid, so expect a soft, spreadable filling rather than a sliceable curd.
- One lemonUse about 3 tablespoons of juice and the zest of one fruit; grate the zest before juicing, and take only the yellow.
- Zest handlingGrated rind added to the boiling syrup gives the strongest flavor, but leaves visible flecks. Steeping wide peel strips in the hot syrup and lifting them out before thickening gives a clearer filling.
- Pan and utensilUse stainless or enameled, not bare aluminum or cast iron — the acid will pick up a metallic taste and dull gray color. A wooden spoon or silicone spatula reaches the corners better than the fork the original calls for.
- YieldAbout a cupful, enough to fill one two-layer 8- or 9-inch cake. Cool it to lukewarm before spreading, and let the filled cake stand an hour so the layers set together.
Butterick, better known for dress patterns, published its cook book as part of a broad line of household manuals aimed at the same middle-class subscriber who bought its magazines, and its cake chapter reflects the American layer-cake habit that took hold after chemical leavening and reliable ranges made a two- or three-tier cake ordinary domestic work. A plain butter or sponge layer was a blank, and the filling supplied the character. Lemon was a common choice. Thickening with a spoonful of flour rather than cornstarch marks the recipe as belonging to the older tradition — cornstarch had been commercially manufactured since the 1840s, but flour was what was already in the bin.