What a champ, just 22″ tall and two lemons!
I love my little Ponderosa Lemon Tree. The year before last it came in from its summer on the patio with a near terminal case of scale and I thought I would lose it, but it has recovered and this year has borne me two lemons instead of the customary one. I have plenty of jams left from the summer and decided to make Lemon Curd with my bounty instead of the marmalade I usually make. [I have previously posted the directions for Ponderosa Lemon Marmalade here .] I first encountered Lemon Curd on a birding trip to the Cornwall area of England. It is a delightful sweet/tart custard-like topping for a hot scone or muffin, but my favorite way to use it is as a filling between the layers of a lemon cake, with a dollop on the top.
My husband gave this four stars.
I first turned to the internet to search for a recipe and found a vast variety to choose from. Upon analysis, most had the same ingredients in common although in varying amounts. The constants are lemon juice, butter, eggs, sugar and zest. I decided that the determining factor was the amount of juice I had to start with, so I first removed all the zest and then juiced the lemons.
Nearly six inches long
The lemon is big but they have a surprisingly small fruit cavity. Trimming off the white pith makes squeezing easier.
Just shy of a cup of juice and all this zest. I froze the rest of the zest for future use.
I was just shy of one cup of juice so I added about two tablespoons of regular lemon juice to make a cup. The sugar amount in the recipes varied from three cups to one and a half. I don’t like things too sweet, but Lemon Curd is often made with Meyer Lemons which are sweeter, so I thought that two cups would be about right, a 2:1 ratio. For the eggs (varying from six to eight), I chose to use only four whole eggs. Some of the recipes also used yolks but I never seem to use the leftover whites, so I just opted for whole eggs. For butter, the recipes varied from eight to sixteen tablespoons, so I chose eight. My lemons gave me a magnificent bowlful of zest, but the recipes all called for paltry amounts (1/2 tsp, etc.). I threw caution to the winds and added a quarter cup, tightly packed. To temper the sweetness I also added a scant pinch of salt. Here is the recipe I came up with:
Ponderosa Lemon Curd
- 1 C. Ponderosa Lemon juice
I located my long unused double boiler to cook the mixture.
- 2 C. sugar
- 8 Tbsp. unsalted butter
- 4 large eggs
- 1/4 C. zest
- scant pinch of salt
Ina Garten’s recipe called for pulsing the sugar with the zest first, so I did that and added it into the butter which I had previously creamed. Add eggs, one at a time beating between each. Finally add the lemon juice and salt, beating well. Heat, stirring constantly until it reaches 170º F, remove from heat and store in the refrigerator. I canned mine, but will still keep it in the refrigerator (the eggs). If you have it in an open bowl, lay a sheet of plastic wrap over the top so it won’t form a skin. I used an instant read thermometer to keep and eye on the temperature, but if you don’t have one, it is ready when your finger leaves a track on the back of the stirrer. Do not let it boil.
It took about 20 minutes to reach 170º
At 170º my finger left a track that didn’t fill in.
A Naturalist's Table 