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Lemon Cheese Cake
Mrs. Joseph Saulter.
Break one pound of loaf sugar into small lumps, put to it one-quarter pound of butter, the yolks of six eggs with the whites of four, the juice of three lemons, and the peel of two grated; put these into a pan, let them simmer over a slow fire until the sugar is dissolved ; continue to stir it gently one way while it is on the fire, or it will curdle; keep it in a jar like mince meat; let it simmer till it begins to thicken, or looks like honey.
This is lemon curd under an older name: no cheese, no cream cheese, and no crust in the recipe itself. It was made in quantity and kept on hand to fill small pastry cases, which is why the instructions end with a jar rather than a baking tin.
- The hinge: keep it below a simmerDespite the word "simmer," the mixture must never boil. Eggs set at about 170-175F and curdle above that, so hold it just below steaming and pull it off the heat when it coats the spoon and looks like warm honey. A double boiler or a heavy pan on the lowest flame is the safest route.
- Stirring "one way"The direction of the spoon has no effect. What matters is that the stirring is constant and gentle so no part of the mixture sits against the hot metal long enough to scramble.
- Loaf sugarRefined sugar was sold as hard cones and broken up with nippers, hence "small lumps." One pound of ordinary granulated sugar, about 2 1/4 cups, is the equivalent; it will dissolve faster than the lumps did.
- Butter and eggsA quarter pound of butter is 4 oz, or half a cup. Using six yolks with four whites rather than yolks alone changes the character of the set; beat the eggs together before they go into the pan.
- LemonsThree period lemons yield roughly 1/3 to 1/2 cup of juice from modern fruit. Grate only the coloured zest of two, avoiding the white pith, and add it at the start so the oils have time to infuse.
- Strain and coolPass the finished curd through a fine sieve to catch any threads of set egg and the coarser zest, then cool it uncovered before sealing. Warm curd sealed in a jar sweats and thins.
- Storage, which the original gets wrong"Keep it in a jar like mince meat" assumed a cold larder and a household that used it up quickly. An egg-and-butter curd is not shelf stable: refrigerate it and use within about two weeks, or freeze it.
- Yield and useThis is a large batch by modern standards, enough to fill a couple of dozen small tart shells, or a single 8-inch baked pastry case with a meringue over it.
In nineteenth-century British and Canadian usage a "cheesecake" was any small tart filled with a rich curd, a name inherited from the medieval and early modern tarts genuinely made from curdled milk or fresh cheese. Over the 1800s the curd of eggs, butter and citrus increasingly took the place of the dairy curd — a shift often attributed to cheaper sugar and lemons, though that is inference rather than documented fact — but the old name stuck, which is why a recipe with no cheese in it sits under this title. The Home Cook Book, published in Toronto in 1877 and usually called Canada's first community or fundraising cookbook, was assembled from recipes contributed and signed by local women, and this entry is a typical example: a made-ahead store, potted like mincemeat or jam, ready for whenever pastry was rolled.} </p>