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Lemon Honey
Four ounces of butter, one pound of sugar, six eggs, leaving out two whites; grate the rinds of three lemons and add the juice. Let all simmer over the fire till it becomes of the consistency of honey. Great care must be taken that it does not burn.
This is lemon curd under an older name, and the whole recipe hinges on heat control: the eggs must thicken without ever approaching a boil.
- Use a double boiler"Simmer over the fire" would likely have meant a pot set at the cool edge of a range, or over water. Over direct heat the eggs will scramble and the mixture will catch, which is probably what the warning about burning is about. A bowl over barely simmering water gives you control comparable to what the original cook had by moving her pan.
- The doneness cue"The consistency of honey" means it coats a spoon and leaves a clear track when you draw a finger through it. That happens around 170-175F; it will thicken further as it cools, so pull it while it still looks slightly loose.
- Quantities in modern termsFour ounces of butter is one stick; a pound of sugar is about 2 1/4 cups. Six eggs less two whites means four whole eggs plus two yolks, which is why the set is rich rather than firm.
- Sugar levelA full pound to three lemons is sweet by current taste and also acts as insurance against curdling. Reducing it makes a sharper curd that scrambles more readily, so drop the heat further if you cut back.
- Zest and juiceGrate only the yellow of the rind; the white pith is bitter. Rub the zest into the sugar first to draw out the oils, and strain the finished curd if you prefer it smooth.
- Yield and keepingExpect roughly three to three and a half cups. This is not a preserve despite the sugar: refrigerate it and use it within about a week, or freeze it.
- How to use itSpread on bread or fill tart shells, small cakes and layer cakes. It is too soft to hold up as a pie filling on its own without additional thickening or a chilled set.
"Lemon honey" is one of several nineteenth-century names for what is now called lemon curd, alongside "lemon cheese" and "lemon butter." The names are usually taken to describe the result by its texture -- it pours and spreads much like honey, and like a soft cheese it sets on standing -- though that reading is traditional explanation rather than documented etymology, and "lemon butter" names an ingredient as much as a texture. Recipes of this kind appear in British and North American household books through the nineteenth century, and cheaper refined sugar and more available imported lemons are commonly credited with making a sweet, buttery egg preserve practical for an ordinary kitchen. Its usual job was as a filling: for tartlets, sandwich cakes and the small pastries expected at afternoon tea. The Home Cook Book, compiled in Toronto in the 1870s from contributions by ladies of Toronto and other cities, is the sort of collection in which a recipe like this circulated, set down in a few lines with no yield, no pan size and a single instruction about not letting it burn.