Severe cooking

On the first really Summery day we have had this season, when a Total Fire Ban had been declared, with the fire danger rating set at 'severe' and with the temperature hitting 40 degrees celcius the cook, in her wisdom, decided to cook jam.  

I don't believe that it is simply coincidence that the colour of her preserves matched the fire danger indicator outside the fire station.  It got pretty hot and severe in the kitchen at times too.

However, the results of her madness are magnificent as the samples below show.  

From left to right: Lemon curd, marmalade, raspberry jam and blackberry jam.

I must be honest, the marmalade was made a few weeks ago...but it looks so pretty with the other jars.

The purpose of this post is not to just poke fun at the cook. (Although that is always entertaining.)  It is to share the secret to making the smoothest lemon curd without the need to strain it.  The lumps you sometimes get in curd are little bits of egg white that cook before the curd thickens.

Ingredients:

2 cups of sugar

125 grams butter

4 eggs

grated rind and juice of 4 lemons

The secret is the method.

The difference between the basic recipe, 

which has you adding all of the above to a saucepan or double boiler and stirring till it thickens, 

and this batch is this:

The cook's mother passed down her disused mixer.  Like the cook, it is a wonderful vintage model in good working order.

And the trick is to cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs one at a time, beating in well between eggs as if you were making a cake. Then add the lemon juice and rind. 

 This mixture was cooked in the mix master bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and stirred constantly.  

When I was little, it was my job to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl as the mixer mixed.  I have always
loved those delicious patterns the beaters make...an elegant promise of tasty things to come. 

The mixture made three 200 ml jars.  One is almost gone, one went home with my daughter and the grandsons today and I have hidden the last one.