[Sca-cooks] Lemon Curd Help

[johnna holloway]

Ok,  Lemon curd is one of those odd things. Laura Mason
in the Traditional Foods of Britain says
that what we now eat as Lemon Curd comes from the tradition
of the 18th century transparent puddings, a la Mrs. Raffald. It was
then established as a commercial product in the later part of the 1800's.
Prior to that in the 1600's there were cheesecakes made with curds and eggs.
C. Anne Wilson in Food and Drink in Britain mentions that lemon
cheesecake was a further development of the curds and then the custard
cheesecakes of the 17th century. By circa 1700, one was seeing
lemon peels, egg yolks, sugar and butter  being combined into
a filling that eventually became lemon curd. I did check John Nott's
Cooks Dictionary of 1726 and didn't find a recipe for it in that.
My best guess is that any recipes combining the ingredients are going
to be 17th century at the earliest and under the name "lemon curd"
may be only 19th century. OED only gives 19th century for it.

I will keep an eye out and let you know if I find anything earlier.

Johnnae llyn Lewis  Johnna Holloway


Terry Decker wrote: snipped
Possibly, but I haven't located a specific reference.  Markham (1615) does

> give a recipe "To make fresh cheese," where he mixes rennet with fresh milk
> and cream to make curds, drains them, then mixes the curds with egg yolk,
> rosewater, salt, sugar and nutmeg (spiced curds?), a process very similar to
> those for making fruit curds.
> If you want to go for lemon preserves (marmalade), there are definitely
> recipes for that..Bear
> ------------------------------
> >This may sound like a silly question, is lemon curd
> >period??????
> >
> >I would think that it would be, in fact, I'm fairly
> >sure that I have been told that it was, but can find
> >NO documentation on this.. HELP!!!  PLEASE!!!!
> >
> >Katren Fitzgerald
>
>