I’ve made lemon curd many times over the years – all sorts: from soft and pourable to thick and eggy to almost paste-like. Here are a few of my favorite ways to make it:

In the Processor

This is an easy, non-traditional way to make a delicious, traditional lemon curd. Because the recipe calls only for yolks, the resultant curd is a deep, almost golden yellow. It’s perfectly sweet and tangy. Its texture is soft and pudding-like … perfect for spreading over an English muffin or using as a soft tart filling.

What you need to make about 1 cup

2 or 3 large lemons
¾ cup sugar
8 Tbs unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into pieces
5 egg yolks
¼ tsp salt

How to do it:

1. Peel the lemons, taking as little of the bitter white pith as possible. Cut the lemons in half, juice them, and measure out ½-cup of juice. Repurpose any excess juice.
2. Combine the sugar and lemon peels in the bowl of a food processor and process until the peels are very finely ground, about 30 seconds. Add the butter, egg yolks, lemon juice and salt to the bowl. Pulse a few times and then process to incorporate everything, about 15 seconds. The mixture will looked curdled, but that’s OK.
3. Place a strainer over a large cereal bowl, so it is ready to go when your curd is done.
4. Pour the lemon mixture into a small saucepan and place over lowest heat. Stir occasionally with a silicone spatula until you notice the mixture beginning to stick to the bottom of the pan, about 7½ minutes. At that point, stir constantly until the mixture reaches 170˚F, about 7 minutes more. The curd should be thick enough that it coats the back of a wooden spoon, and a finger run through the back-of-the-spoon coating should leave a clear, distinct path.
5. Pour the curd through the strainer. You’ll need to coax it through; be gentle … fold rather than push – otherwise you’ll force peel through the strainer. Cover the curd with plastic wrap such that the plastic is in direct contact with the entire surface of the curd. Jab at the plastic with a sharp knife to create four small breaches in the plastic. Allow to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. It will keep for a few weeks.

Notes

You can store lemon curd in the freezer for several months.

Don’t toss the stuff you strain out of the finished curd. Let it cool, then mix it into some cottage cheese and enjoy that as a snack.

You’re going to wind up with some zest in your finished curd. It’s inevitable and also in keeping with many mainstream curd recipes. If you absolutely must have a completely smooth curd, though, this isn’t your method (or maybe it is your method, but you should experiment with less processing).

The purpose of the plastic wrap is to prevent a skin from forming. Once the curd is cool, you can store it in a different manner without worrying about that.

Using Cornstarch

This is the type of curd a lot of people use for lemon meringue pie. It’s thicker and denser than a traditional curd. It’s an easy curd to make – especially if you don’t use zest. If there is a trick to it, it’s attentiveness. Thickening, bubbling … these things happen gradually if you’re constantly stirring or whisking. Walk away from the stove for a matter of seconds though, and you might return to a curd that has changed dramatically, which may result in an uneven texture at best, or scorching and burning at worst.

Cornstarch gives this curd a semi-translucent quality and a quite firm texture. One of the practical advantages of this type of curd is that it requires fewer eggs per finished cup.

What you need to make 2 cups:

1 cup sugar
2 Tbs cornstarch
3 tsp lemon zest (optional)
½ cup lemon juice
¼ cup water
6 egg yolks, beaten
8 Tbs butter (½ cup, which is 1 stick), cut into pieces

How to do it:

1. In a medium saucepan stir together sugar and cornstarch. Stir in (lemon zest), lemon juice, and water. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly (to at least 170°F).
2. Slowly whisk the juice mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook, continuing to whisk constantly, over medium heat until mixture is quite thick and comes to a gentle boil. Remove from heat.
3. Add butter pieces, whisking until melted. Cover the surface of the curd with plastic wrap. Use a sharp knife to puncture the plastic in three or four places. Chill at least 1 hour or for up to 48 hours. Store covered in refrigerator up to 1 week or transfer to a freezer container and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw in refrigerator before serving.

Notes:

If you shift the ratio of lemon juice to water to ¼-cup + 2 Tbs each, you’ll produce a curd with well-balanced flavor, tartness, and sweetness. Mine is a bit more intense, more vibrant, and a bit more tart – more of something a true lemon lover would love.

Eliminating the zest will give you a perfectly smooth curd without sacrificing too much flavor.

Orange Curd: prepare as above, decreasing sugar to ¾-cup, substituting orange zest for the lemon zest and ¾ cup orange juice for the lemon juice and water. Makes about 1½ cups.

Egg Whites (meaning, using whole eggs instead of yolks)

The classic lemon curd uses only yolks, but many recipes call for whole eggs or a combination of whole eggs and yolks. Curd made with whites is less eggy-tasting, less dense, and lighter in color. All the pictures in this post are of curds using yolks only.

Metal

Sometimes, homemade curds can develop a metallic aftertaste. I don’t know where this comes from. Although your instincts might be to blame your metal saucepans, metal whisks, or metal mixing bowl, if they’re stainless steel – as mine are – that shouldn’t be the culprit. Neither of the curds I produced with the methods I’ve outlined in this post had that problem. But I have to tell you that I had a bit of lemon juice leftover, so I made lemonade. I started measuring the ingredients into a glass bottle, and eventually realized that they weren’t going to fit. So, I poured the mixture into a metal mixing bowl, finished adding what need to be added, whisked it up with a metal whisk, and poured it into two bottles. It had a metallic aftertaste. It’s very tempting to think the problem was the whisk, the bowl, or the abrasive action between the two.

Lemon Curd

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! Thank you, Kesor. In preparing this post, I found Better Homes and Gardens, The Kitchn, and Savory Simple to be helpful.

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