I have never made curd before and I am thinking about making some tarts for my sisters baby shower. I want any kind of curd that can be made. So please share! Lemon, Lime, grapefruit, orange.... All welcome.

I can tell you that all citrus is interchangeable in curd - hence, if you have a recipe for lemon curd, you would use an equal amount of orange, lime or grapefruit to achieve the taste you crave.

I have heard of berry curds, but have not seen a recipe for them.

Theresa

I also wondered about that, but have been told you can also BUY curd in the grocery store.
My question is, since I've never had curd before....
is it like the lemon stuff in lemon meringue pie??? Or lemon pudding????

Yes, you can buy it in the store, and the brand I get (I forget the name but it starts with an M) is quite tasty. They have lemon, key lime, and grapefruit. You can usually find it on the upper shelves, near the pie fillings.

And yes, it is the stuff in the lemon meringue pie, but the stuff in the jar is a bit thicker.

I tasted some really awesome lemon curd at the Fancy Food Show last year, but the closest I could get to the sales reps was the sample tray at the other end of the counter! It was so amazingly buttery, and light in consistency. I'm going back this year, and will definitely get the name of the company.

Theresa

Playingwithsugar,
Thanks for clarifying that for me!!

I love the idea of curd....What would you get if you like added say.....any juice to cornstarch.. (makes gravy right?) So if you add sugar to the juice will you get anything other than a mess?

Here is a good read on lemon curd:

http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/articles/foolproof-lemon-curd-method.aspx

Great article peanut. Thank you for posting it.

There was a great thread about Curd few months ago but we lost due to the crash.

Anyway, one of the members, I'm sure her name was Paty ( I hope I'm right) gave this link from Epicurious.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/15128

she said that you can use any fruit you like instead of Nectarines. And I made Mango Curd and it turned out really nice. That was the first time I ever made any kind of curd and next week I'm going to try and make Strawberry and Pineapple.

HTH.

I picture medium to fit in my hand. Therefore, if it's strawberries, mound that in my hand to amount to about the same. Then I always throw in a couple or two more. Yep, really scientific!!

I just bought a bottle of mango extract (?) at the Mid-Atlantic Cake show and I have some frozen mango puree in my freezer that I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to do with...I'm gonna make some mango curd!! Oh, I can't wait to get home now.

Also, I just made a batch of lemon curd to use as cupcake filling tomorrow. Does it need to be refrigerated?

Melvira, no problem at all. Happy to share.

What I did was, I peeled and then cut the mango into medium size cubes. Then I used half of it. But after I made that I wished I had used a bit more of the mango, because after I eat it I still could taste the egg yolks, which I don't like.

Tomoore, I didn't use mango extract to make mine. I just used pure mango. I'm sure it will be ok to use the extract though. And I did put mine in the fridge after it is cooled.

Bashini,
A option to reduce the egg yolk taste is to modify the recipe to use some whole eggs, and reduce the total number of yolks (the strong egg taste usually comes from sulfur compounds in the yolk). There are many good fruit curd recipes that call for 50% egg yolks and 50% whole eggs. The egg yolks provide the emulsifiers that keep the butter suspended and the egg whites help thicken the curd.

I am a big fan of mangos ...I like your idea of adding more.

Melody--If you look in the How Do I forum under the Serious Discussion on Cupcakes thread---somewhere in the middle I posted my curd recipe. I found it in a cupcake book and it is so easy and doesn't need straining at all. It can be frozen and is just fine when thawed out. I even refroze it once and had no bad effects from that. It is very lemony or lime flavored and is the best I have found. I freeze it in 1 cup containers and use it for cakes and cupcakes. It makes a perfectly delicious tart when you put it in a regular baked pie crust which I add 1 tsp. of almond flavoring too when I make the pie crust. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream and toasted almond slices.
Lilybird

Does the store bought curd have to be refreigerated when used as a filling?

-ETA: Nevermind...just found the answer on the cake mix doctor website. She apparently has a cake on there filled with store bought lemon curd that can sit at room temp for three days.

peanut123, thank you so much for that idea. I must try it next time.

I'm so glad you guys started this. You don't (at least I didn't) realize just how many yolks you end up with from other recipes! After reading another post (probably lost in the crash) about saving yolks instead of tossing them, I began to save mine. I went through my freezer and have over 100 yolks in various containers. I need to clean out my freezer, so I'll be trying curd recipes all week!

I'll be there to taste test for you!!!

Hi everybody, just wanted say that I made strawberry curd today. I did as to the recipe I posted before. Actualy I used a lot of strawberry than the recipe called for. I had them in my freezer, and I put it out in the morning and it was thawed properly. I blend it and it became like pulp.

Anyway, when I started to whisk it over a simmering water I had to do it for a very long time than I thought. But I like the taste and I didn't get the taste of the yolks as much as I did the previous time.

I used it as a filling for a white cake and I mixed some curd with dark choc ganache and covered the cake with it.

YUMMY.........................