Lemon Curd

One of my favorite flavors has always been lemon. Not the overly sweet flavors of candy or lemonade, but a real lemon flavor from a whole lemon cooked into cake, pie, cookies and custards. The intense lemon flavor from that wonderful outer zest, the sweetness added from the sugar, it’s always been one of my absolute favorites. 

When I first had lemon curd I swore I could lick the bowl clean, the flavor was amazing, the texture was perfect and I was completely in love with it. But making this delectable treat in small batches was so difficult for me, the hour of prep time and then cooking and then waiting for it to cool, it was all too much to allow me to keep lemon curd around on a regular basis.

In stumbling around on my canning adventures I discovered that lemon curd could be canned! Yes! I could make large quantities and have this on my pantry shelves for a midnight craving or a baking project? I had to experiment with this food and perfect it to ensure it was made right and would last for many months.

I found that the key to canning lemon curd is actually pasteurization. A slow method of Water bath canning allows the eggs to become shelf stable. While one might be able to use other methods to allow for shelf stability, I have not tried them yet, so for this recipe I can only recommend water bath canning.