Grapefruit Curd

lemon curd's less obvious relation: juice reduced hard to concentrate it, then cooked slowly with yolks, sugar, and butter into a set that keeps the fruit's bitterness intact

Origin: United Kingdom

From the journey of Grapefruit.

Fruit curd is an English invention of the nineteenth century, originally made at table as a fresh preserve to be eaten within days, and lemon has always dominated it. Grapefruit is the more interesting fruit for the purpose, and it is worth understanding why it is also the harder one. A curd is an emulsion held by egg yolk, thickened by gentle heat, and enriched with butter. It needs enough acid to taste of the fruit against a great deal of fat and sugar, and grapefruit juice does not have enough: it is roughly a third as acidic as lemon and considerably more watery. Used straight it produces something sweet and vaguely floral that no one would identify. Reducing the juice by half before it goes near the eggs solves both problems at once, concentrating the acid and the aromatics together. What then survives is the quality that makes the fruit worth using. Bitterness is not volatile in the way that citrus perfume is, so where a lemon curd loses much of its brightness to the heat, a grapefruit curd keeps its edge, and that edge is exactly what stops a spoonful of butter, sugar, and yolk from cloying. It is one of very few sweet preparations in which grapefruit reads unmistakably as itself.

Ingredients

  • 350 ml grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed and strained
  • 2 tsp grapefruit zest, finely grated
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 150 g caster sugar
  • 3 whole eggs
  • 3 whole egg yolks
  • 120 g unsalted butter, cold and cubed
  • 1 pinch fine sea salt

Method

  1. Boil the grapefruit juice in a wide pan until reduced to about 175 ml, roughly half. Cool completely.
  2. Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingertips until the sugar is damp and fragrant.
  3. Whisk the eggs, yolks, salt, and the zested sugar together in a heatproof bowl until smooth, then whisk in the cooled reduced juice and the lemon juice.
  4. Set the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, the base not touching the water, and stir constantly with a spatula for 15 to 20 minutes, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon and hold a drawn line.
  5. Take off the heat and whisk in the cold butter a few cubes at a time, letting each addition melt before adding more.
  6. Push the curd through a fine sieve into a clean jar, press a disc of greaseproof paper onto the surface, cool, and refrigerate.

Notes

White grapefruit gives a sharper and better curd than pink; ruby fruit is sweeter and needs the full tablespoon of lemon juice, possibly two. The reduction is not optional and the curd will not taste of anything much without it. Keeps ten days refrigerated and does not freeze well. Use it as you would lemon curd: on toast or scones, folded through whipped cream as a fool, spread thinly under the fruit in a tart, or as the filling of a Victoria sandwich, where its bitterness is a considerable improvement on jam.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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