Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Lemon Curd















I used a recipe from JoyofBaking.com. For this batch I just made 3 small 4oz jars, just to test the taste and consistency of the finished product. The jars just pinged, so I know they are sealed, but I'll wait until morning to open one up and see the results. I used bottled lemon juice from Safeway for this recipe, just to see what kind of flavor it would produce. The remainder at the bottom of the bowl was tasty, but a bit light in flavor. I might have to use fresh-squeezed lemon juice for the next batch.

Here's the basic recipe:

3 large eggs
1/3 cup of lemon juice
3/4 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of lemon zest
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter

I mixed the eggs, lemon juice and sugar with a wire wisk in the top of a double boiler over simmering water. Within 6 minutes the mixture was thick and I tried to put it through a sieve, but gave up and decided that it was smooth enough. Into the bowl with the lemon mixture I mixed the butter and the lemon zest. Once all the butter was incorporated, I put it into sterilized canning jars and placed it into the boiling water bath for 15 minutes. (I live at about 1400 feet above sea level.)

Note: there are instructions on the NCHFP site about how to safely can lemon curd. A critical piece of this is using bottled lemon juice. I did that and I found the curd to be positively delicious, even though I don't particularly care for the bottle lemon juice in other things. Here's a post about it: https://www.uga.edu/nchfp/papers/2006/06ift-lemoncurd.html and then a link to their recipe: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_02/lemon_curd.html. The above recipe is just a variation.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Lemon Curd

Reposted on January 19, 2010. See above for full post.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Citrus Challenge


Looks like I'll be canning something with citrus this month! I know just what I want to try too. This afternoon while I was making a banana cream pie I stumbled onto the page of the Fannie Farmer Cookbook that has the lemon curd recipe. And these 4 oz quilted Ball jars will be perfect for the project. Good for gifting too, but I don't know whether I'll be able to part with any of it. Okay, I'll try to be more generous in 2010. This seems like a good way to start.

Here's a post from the National Center for Home Food Preservation that gives a recipe and basic canning instructions: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_02/lemon_curd.html. I am irritated that they recommend using bottled lemon juice, but for the sake of safety, I think I'll take their advice.