Lemon Curd Cake

Lime Curd Cookies

Dutch Babies with Lemon Curd and Blueberries

Vegan Macaroon Lime Curd Bars

Source: misswondersmith.com

Blue crab shaped buns with clover

& huckleberry-blueberry curd with vanilla

Lemon Curd Cake

German-Austrian actor Curd Jürgens on a vintage postcard

Enjoy

A Jar of Curd or Marmalade

In the midst of Winter, especially on these very cold days we're having plenty of at the moment, A Jar of Curd Marmalade is a treasure, a burst of sunshine, the promise of a joyful moment; whether you spread it on warm toast or swirl it into thick, creamy Yoghurt! And January is the prime month for marmalade-making! The citrus stalls at the market are full of juicy oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruits, satsumas and tangerines, and others, if you're lucky! I hope I may find a bunch of ripe bergamots, so I could endeavour to capture the magic of this Confiture de Bergamote I bought in Menton this Summer, which soon will be finished! But if I don't, I still can make these bright and tangy preserves!

Limoncello Lemon Curd 

Lime and Lemon Curd 

Red Marmalade

Grapefruit, Lime and Vanilla Marmalade

Grapefruit and Ginger Marmalade

Lemon Curd

Mr. Fortescue’s Marmalade (Without Taxine)

By now you might have started to suspect: Cheese is fundamentally about decomposition. Like microbes on a rotten log in the woods, the bacteria and fungi in cheese break down their environment — in this case, the milk fats and proteins. This makes cheeses creamy and gives them flavor.

Mother Noella Marcellino, a longtime Benedictine cheesemaker at the Abbey of Regina Laudis, put it this way in a 2021 interview with Slow Food: “Cheese shows us what goodness can come from decay. Humans don’t want to look at death, because it means separation and the end of a cycle. But it’s also the start of something new. Decomposition creates this wonderful aroma and taste of cheese while evoking a promise of life beyond death.”

Exactly how the microbes build flavor is still being investigated. “It’s much less understood,” says Mayo. But a few things already stand out. Lactic acid bacteria, for example, produce volatile compounds called acetoin and diacetyl that can also be found in butter and accordingly give cheeses a rich, buttery taste. A yeast called Geotrichum candidum brings forth a blend of alcohols, fatty acids and other compounds that impart the moldy yet fruity aroma characteristic of cheeses such as Brie or Camembert. Then there’s butyric acid, which smells rancid on its own but enriches the aroma of Parmesan, and volatile sulfur compounds whose cooked-cabbage smell blends into the flavor profile of many mold-ripened cheeses like Camembert. “Different strains of microbe can produce different taste components,” says Cotter.

All a cheesemaker does is set the right conditions for the “rot” of the milk. “Different bacteria and fungi thrive at different temperatures and different humidity levels, so every step along the way introduces variety and nuance,” says Julia Pringle, a microbiologist at the artisan Vermont cheesemaker Jasper Hill Farm. If a cheesemaker heats the milk to over 120 degrees Fahrenheit, for example, only heat-loving bacteria like Streptococcus thermophilus will survive — perfect for making cheeses like mozzarella.

Cutting the curd into large chunks means that it will retain a fair amount of moisture, which will lead to a softer cheese like Camembert. On the other hand, small cubes of curd drain better, resulting in a drier curd — something you want for, say, a cheddar.

Storing the young cheese at warmer or cooler temperatures will again encourage some microbes and inhibit others, as does the amount of salt that is added. So when cheesemakers wash their ripening rounds with brine, it not only imparts seasoning but also promotes colonies of salt-loving bacteria like B. linens that promptly create a specific kind of rind: “orangey, a bit sticky, and kind of funky,” says Pringle.

Even the tiniest changes in how a cheese is handled can alter its microbiome, and thus the cheese itself, cheesemakers say. Switch on the air exchanger in the ripening room by mistake so that more oxygen flows around the cheese and suddenly molds will sprout that haven’t been there before.

  —  The Science Behind Your Cheese

✿ カードライス | Curd Rice ・南アジア方面ではカード（curd）はヨーグルトを指します。つまり「カードライス」とは「ヨーグルトご飯」のこと。南インドでは、ワンプレートの定食でご飯とおかずを一通りたいらげたあと、おかわりしたご飯とヨーグルトをプレート上で混ぜあわせて食事のシメにすることが多いようです。 ・蒸した白米とヨーグルトを組み合わせるのが最も簡単な作り方です。米は南インド風に柔らかくなるように、蒸し炊きまたは圧力炊きで調理されます。 室温まで冷ました後、細かく刻んだ青唐辛子、生姜、カレーリーフで味付けし、場合によってはブラックグラム、マスタードシード、クミンシード、アサフェティダのテンパリングを加えます。 最後にカードと塩を加えます。

Blackberry Cream Cheese Danish

Raspberry Curd Sugar Cookies

Rosemary & Lavender Lemon Curd “Tassies”

Vegan Blood Orange Curd

scoop it over yogurt, layer it in parfaits, spoon some over ice cream, or dig in straight up with a spoon

[WATCH OUT, DON'T GET ANYTHING ON HIM. OKAY. THIS IS AWESOME. GUITAR, IT'S CALLED. CURD? YES. THAT'S A HERD OF CURD. CUT IT UP. THIS IS LIKE, A 43-POUND CHUNK THAT COMES IN. 42, 43.]