Parks Canada Heritage Gourmet Recipes

Lemon Curd

This lemon curd would be delicious spooned over a cake or a bowl of raspberries!

Origin: Laurier House National Historic Site
Region: Ontario
Period: 20^th Century - present
Course: Desserts and Baked Goods

Portrait of Sir Wilfrid Laurier by William James Topley
© Library and Archives Canada / C-001971

At the turn of the 20th century, this impressive Ottawa house – now known as Laurier House National Historic Site - was home for Wilfrid and Zoé Laurier. The Lauriers enjoyed entertaining friends and relatives, and even the political functions they hosted were casual and relaxed. Wilfrid often issued last minute dinner invitations to political colleagues, and Zoé was fond of organizing card parties (she particularly enjoyed playing poker) and musical evenings. Although there is no record of the Lauriers serving Lemon Curd, home-made lemon curd was very popular at the time, traditionally served with bread or scones at afternoon tea as an alternative to jam, and as a filling for cakes, small pastries and tarts.

Lemon Curd

Ingredients:

• 4 lemons
• 2 cups | 500 ml granulated sugar
• ½ cup | 115 ml butter
• 6 eggs

Directions:

• Grate the rind of two lemons; reserve. Squeeze all the lemons and place both rind and juice into the top of double boiler (over boiling water). Whisk in the sugar, butter and eggs until smooth. Cover and cook, stirring often, until thick; about 20 minutes. Ladle into glass jar. Cool and refrigerate for up to 4 weeks.

Credits:

This recipe comes from Anita Stewart, Anita Stewart's Country Inns Cookbook, Stoddart, 1987.

Anita Stewart, author of numerous cookbooks and other works, lives in Elora, Ontario.