[Sca-cooks] lemon curd

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach ekoogler1 at comcast.net:
>To be honest, I have't actually done any research on whether or not 
>lemon curd is period, but I know that there is a company that makes 
>various fruit curds, including lemon, and they claim on their tag 
>that it is an Elizabethan recipe.  Maybe I'll check out some of the 
>late period cook books I have and see what I can find.

CAVEAT: I am working from memory here.

My recollection of the whole "is lemon curd period" imbroglio, or 
rather, the upshot of it, was as follows. Repeat caveat: I could be 
wrong. I reserve the right to be, in fact. But I'm also more likely 
to forget an incident that occurred than to remember one that didn't. 
Anyway, BTAIM...

A) I seem to recall that we _did_ find vaguely (as in, late) period 
sources for lemon curd, and

B) they turned out to be curd cheeses (dairy products like milk 
and/or cream curdled with lemon juice), often sweetened as a tart 
filling, and

C) the earliest written recipe anybody on this list could find for 
the custard/preserve version of lemon curd was late 19th, early 20th 
century, and universal shock was expressed when it was pointed out 
that no lemon curd recipe or reference appears in Mrs. Beeton's Book 
of Household Management. Although that may simply underscore the 
Scottish side of its roots, but with Victoria on the throne at the 
time, these would have been more likely stressed than de-emphasized.

Adamantius