Today I started out on an adventure. An adventure to make curd. See, I usually avoid any recipe that requires me to stir constantly. The one and only time I made fudge I burned the tar out of it. I didn't stir enough.
I don't like to stir. I like to ignore. So, custard recipes are out. And curd is a custard. But, I was in Fiesta and the bags of key limes were only $1.50 for a 2 pound bag. That's about as cheap as they get. They tend to hit this price in the dead of Winter and in the hottest part of Summer, so key limes must have two seasons around here. I bought two bags yesterday and pledged to make curd. I knew that if I put it off, I'd never make it, so I made a point to make it today.
Have I mentioned that I LOVE key limes? They're fabulous in just about anything - Cokes, tea, water, Caipirinhas, beer...you name it. But I've never used them in baking. Weird, I know. Especially since I'm a baker.
For the curd, I used this recipe. Since I had eight million limes and was determined to use them all, I made a batch that was 5x the recipe. Thankfully I didn't try 6x as it wouldn't have fit into my pan!
I also varied the recipe slightly. I eyeballed (and went for the high side) the zest. I used the zest of 9 key limes and it was too much. The resulting curd is a bit too bitter. But, and that's a big but, if you put it onto something sweet (i.e. a cookie or ice cream) it works quite well. I'll still actually follow the recipe next time and *gasp* measure the zest. I guess I found the one case where more is not a good thing!
I also used salted butter, in case you care.
Wanna see my curd?
Ain't she purty? I did strain the curd before jarring. I figured that was important since I forgot to strain the seeds out of the juice before cooking. Oops.
I also used both pint and half-pint jars. Figured I could give away the half-pint ones and keep the big boys for myself.
Also, after doing quite a bit of research, I determined that I should NOT can the curd. It needs to be refrigerated or frozen. Basically, the combination of eggs and not enough acidity make it a bad idea to can. Plus, you only get up to 3 months of shelf life with canning this product, which is not much. With freezing, however, you get up to a year of shelf life. If you decide to refrigerate it, you get 3 weeks of shelf life.
The original recipe makes about a pint. Since I quintupled the recipe, it made about 5 pints - enough for a couple of pies or whatever else I can think of. I did once make almond tartlets (I used almond butter cookie dough as the crust) and filled them with lemon curd after baking the crusts. They were to die for, and I'd imagine the key lime curd would go nicely with almonds as well.
Did I mention that this recipe is cheap to make? When Mark and I were in Central Market this weekend, I looked longingly at a jar of Key Lime Curd. He told me to buy it if I wanted it so much. My response? "But it's $7 for this tiny little jar of goodness." He shrugged and walked off.
How much did my version cost? About $8...for 5 pints. That "little jar" was either an 8 or 12 ounce jar. So, I made more than 5 times the amount for the same price. Here's the breakdown:
15 eggs - $0.99 (Fiesta had a sale on for 18 for 99 cents. I still have 3 eggs left but rounded up on cost.)
2 - 2 lb. sacks of key limes - $3.98 ($1.49 each)
2 1/2 cups sugar - $1.10 (I used about half of a 4 lb package and the full package was $2.19.)
Just under a pound of butter - $2.00 (love store brand butter prices!)
Reused jars - "free"
Total: $8.07.
Total of on jar of pre-made stuff with tax: $7.57. Total cost for 80 oz of the pre-made stuff (assuming it comes in 12 oz jars) - $50.47. (Assuming it comes in 8 oz jars) - $75.70. That's quite a difference!
So, for a whopping 50 cents more than the cost of one jar I have at least 5 times as much curd. Now, granted, I didn't use all of the same ingredients as they do in their curd. After all, I didn't use preservatives.
If you want to figure jar prices in there too, add $5 to the total. The jars run about $1 each new. And, since you're not truly canning them, you can reuse the lids. I do plan to cover the lids with Press n' Seal as well before freezing since the liquid was not hot enough to create a true vacuum.
Off to enjoy my curd!
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