Mom's Lemon Curd vs Sous Vide Lemon Curd

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outRIAAge

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Mom's Lemon Curd vs Sous Vide Lemon Curd​

Mom finally taught me her lemon curd recipe when she was 90. We stood side-by-side at the stove, each stirring our double-boiler frantically. I watched her every move, but it was really frustrating, because she measured nothing.

"Start with four ounces of sugar." I went to get my fancy digital scale, but she pooh-pooed me, grabbed an enormous British tablespoon, and dumped four scoops into her bowl. I howled at the imprecision of it all, and asked her to measure out four scoops into my bowl. When she was done, the scale read 4.0 ounces. I buttoned my lip.

The rest was also purely winging it, but exactly the same amounts of every ingredient went into our double-boilers. Hers turned out markedly better, goshdurn it. (This was back when she was still working. She was a nurse, and described her job as "taking care of old people.")

But lemon curd (and all the other curds you can imagine, like try tracking down actual Seville oranges - the bitter type beloved by marmalade-makers) is trivial via sous vide. Here's the Anova recipe, which involves putting ingredients in a bag, giving them a squish, bathing them, and when they are finished, giving them another squish. It's as good as my Mom's.

From there, it's trivial to stiffen up the recipe a little for making of (say) Napoleons, though I can't imagine why anyone would want to do that:

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RIP Mom: she lasted to age 98, living alone until the end.
 
Your sous vide recipe is flawed.

It calls for the juice of 4 lemons.

I can guarantee the juice of my Meyer lemons contains much more juice than that of a common lemon. All lemons are not created equal.
 
I,I,me,me, do you ever get over yourself?:ermm:

Before posting, I searched to see if anyone had posted a lemon curd recipe. I found the one you mentioned, and I also found that it used the standard, finicky double-boiler method, so I posted the trivially-easy recipe that came with my circulator.

I do not understand why you equate that with failing to get over myself, and I ask you to refrain from posting purely hostile comments on an otherwise civil forum.
 
Your sous vide recipe is flawed.

It calls for the juice of 4 lemons.

You are correct! I obviously wrote it down wrong. The three lemons I used were particularly juicy, and the recipe worked, but I agree that giving the lemon juice by volume instead of lemon-count would be clearer.
 
You are correct! I obviously wrote it down wrong. The three lemons I used were particularly juicy, and the recipe worked, but I agree that giving the lemon juice by volume instead of lemon-count would be clearer.

Actually, in fairness to you, the recipe in the link you left Sous Vide Lemon Curd
wasn't yours, but from a professional. One would think that she should be aware lemon juice should be listed by volume. :rolleyes:

And by the way, I enjoyed the story with your Mom. I miss mine every day too.
 
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...she was still working. She was a nurse, and described her job as "taking care of old people."...

...RIP Mom: she lasted to age 98, living alone until the end.
I'm not one to make (or use) lemon curd on a regular basis, but I must say I would have loved to have had your Mom as a friend. She must have been, in the words of my Mom, quite a pip.
 
Yeah, I saw that, but it's the standard, finicky double-boiler recipe. The one I posted is about ten times easier.

There is a reason double boiler recipes are still around. Because they are reliable and work. And no expensive equipment to purchase. :angel:
 
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