Lemon Curd for Kimmie

My friend Kim loooooves lemon curd. She is the kind of lemon curd lover that will buy a jar and not tell her husband for fear of having to share. Sorry Kimmie for ruining the secret, but it had to be done. Because of her love for the curd, I have spent a few months thinking about getting a pressure canner so that I can make lemon curd that she could keep for at least 4 months in her pantry. Not that I think it would even last 4 minutes, but I could be wrong. Finally for my birthday, my mother in law took me shopping and bought me this beauty.

Today was the first chance I had to take her out of the box and admire her in all her glory. She is a Mirro 16 qt pressure canner finally I am going to see what she is capable of. I must admit to being a little intimidated by her size.

Now if you have ever made lemon curd the one thing you will remember is how it makes the whole house smell delicious. The eggs, the sugar, the lemon rind, the lemon juice and the butter all brought together in a double boiler is perhaps one of the better air fresheners.

And then when it starts to thicken, it is nearly impossible to resist putting a spoon in and tasting it. Of course you are not tasting it because you have no self control, you are tasting it simply for quality control. This is you making sure that it is good enough for OTHERS to eat.

Once you have strained it to get rid of all of the zest and it is sitting in the bowl looking all silky and like a little burst of sunshine you start to think about what it will be like to have jars of this magical stuff sitting on your pantry shelves and at any time being able to say 'I feel like lemon curd' and being able to pop open a jar and putting it in a nice tart or even eating it directly from the spoon...not that I would ever be so uncivilized to so such a thing. But seriously...just look at it and tell me if you could resist.

And yes...I licked the spoon!

The pressure canner worked like a charm, blew steam and rattled away and we went out for dinner while the curd cooled on the counter in jars. As soon as we returned I had to pop some tarts in the oven so that I could see how good the final product turned out. The verdict is that it is so good that even though Kim inspired this experiment, she will not benefit from the receipt of even one jar. Not because I selfishly want to keep all this goodness to myself. Of course not, I need to practice so that the batch she gets is perfect!