Lemon curd

What is in it

Lemon juice and zest, eggs, butter and sugar. Nothing else, no thickener, no preservative and no colour. That is why it behaves the way it does.

The lemons are our winter fruit, the November to March flush, which is thick skinned and much sharper than the summer lemons off the same trees. Eggs come from a neighbour who keeps about thirty hens. Butter is bought, obviously.

The honest limitation

Curd is not a preserve in the way marmalade is. It is a cooked custard with fruit in it. It has to stay cold, it keeps about four weeks, and posting it in a Portuguese summer would be irresponsible, so we do not.

In practice that means we make it from November to March, we post it within mainland Portugal only, and we send it early in the week so it is not sitting in a depot over a weekend. If you are within reach and want to collect, that is much better and we are happy to arrange it. Everything else in the pantry travels perfectly well and this one does not, and we would rather say so than pretend.

What it is good with

• A spoon, standing at the fridge, which is what most of it goes on.
• Folded through whipped cream, half and half, as the fastest pudding there is.
• In a tart case with nothing else in it.
• On scones instead of jam, with the cream still underneath.

How long it keeps

Four weeks in the fridge from the date on the lid, which is the date it was made rather than a guessed best before. It will not last that long. Do not freeze it, the butter and egg separate on thawing and it goes grainy.

When it is made

Batches of about forty jars, roughly every three weeks between November and March, made the morning after the lemons are picked. If you email in July we will put your name down and get in touch when the first winter batch is made rather than take money for something that does not exist yet.

There is more about the trees on the citrus page.