Cranberry Curd

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This recipe is from Delia’s Cookery Course and Illustrated Cookery Course

Prep Time5

Cook Time30

Total Time35

Course: Breakfast, Side Dish

Servings: jars

Calories: 29kcal

Author: Thrifty Lesley

Cost: £1.18

Equipment

small whisk
storage jars
saucepan
mixing bowl

Ingredients

4 eggs mixed weight, 15 eggs/£1, 27p
250 g cranberries £2
250 g butter 98p
350 g sugar about 80p/kg, 28p
1 tblsp cornflower 1p

Instructions

Put the cranberries in a pan and add a splash of water. Simmer gently
until the fruit has burst and is pulp, you may need to add more water,
it seems to thicken up as it goes along. You are aiming for a thick
pulp.
When the fruit is ready, push it through a sieve, keep pushing until you
have just skin and pips left, being sure to get all the bright red pulp
from the bottom of the sieve.
Now wait impatiently until the pulp is cool. If you add the eggs to it now, the eggs will scramble which will be vile.
When the pulp is cool put everything in a saucepan and simmer very gently
until the curd coats the back of a spoon. Keep whisking it every minute
or so, and don’t let it get too hot. Mine took quite a while to cook,
but I did have it on a very low heat, I didn’t want it to curdle or anything.
While the curd is cooking, put some clean jam jars and lids in a cool
oven for a few minutes to sterilise, leave them there until you are
ready to use them.
Once the curd is done, take the jars from the oven and pour the hot
curd into them, filling them right to the top. Cover with waxed discs
and seal.
Keep the curd in the fridge, or other cool place, and use within a few weeks or so. Alternatively, you can freeze fruit curds for up to 12 months

Notes

Nutrition is per 10g

I shall use this on toast for breakfast or with Greek yogurt. It can be used with scones, on biscuits, as a cake filling, with ice cream or even straight from the jar from a spoon, it’s very yummy!

You can substitute many fruit pulps for the cranberries. Blackcurrant, redcurrant, blueberry, gooseberry, rhubarb, lemon of course, lime, orange, mandarin or grapefruit. Then there is raspberry, passion fruit,,peach, coconut, kiwi and lime. I would try plum, but it may turn out runnier as the cooked fruit is not so much a pulp, more juicy. Damson would be divine. Any fruit that you like and will make a pulp can be used.

here is a post for a classic apple curd. I have this for breakfast with a sharp apple, sliced, and a sprinkle of cinnamon – delicious!

I bet a tomato one would work, maybe with some fresh basil, or how about those cheap cans of black olives I got from Approved Food, bet that would be good, sort of like a creamier version of a tapenade. Or beetroot and rosemary. Celeriac or fennel. Caramelised onions are sweet, wonder if there is a version using those, savoury or sweet?

There are very few savoury curds on the web. I found a savoury lemon one that uses boiled whole lemons, puréed with a little salt and butter. And that was about it really. The miso mayonnaise in that link sounds amazing too, just mix 30g miso and 200g mayo together

I’m going to try a couple and see what I can do with them. I shall start with no sugar, and add it gradually until it tastes right. The butter and eggs are what set a curd, so the texture should be right. Hmmm, what about that miso, miso curd?

Nutrition