I bought her book but haven't looked seriously at it barring the introduction and the oven method. I see the risk of the oven method with full-sugar traditional preserves as one of jar breakage, not safety. Jams are inherently safe; processing is meant to extend shelf life and prevent mold, not because they're prone to risky forms of spoilage. The exceptions would be such low-acid fruits as figs, mangoes and cantaloupe. And while there is risk with those if the levels of added acid are insufficient, I'm guessing it's quite low because to set a preserve you have to cook to about 68% sugar; at that level any remaining water is pretty well bound up by the sugar, which discourages the growth of micro-organisms. In the case of peaches and cherries, I see no risk unless a preserver is really really determined to make peach-cherry slop. Both fruits are naturally low in pectin at the firm-ripe level. At its optimum this will be a loosely set preserve. With dead-ripe fruit it won't set; you could firm it up by cooking it to death, essentially boiling out the water and evaporating into a viscous taffy, but it wouldn't be a gel. So purely hypothetically if you used dead-ripe windfall fruit (i.e. bruised - which also raises pH) you might have a risk, but it would be miniscule. If it disturbs your comfort level, though, you could always add a pinch or two of powdered citric acid, ascorbic acid (which would assist in preservation of the light color), or some of the acid blend wineshops sell. That wouldn't change the liquid ratio and could also be beneficial to cut some of the sweetness. The best resource I know of to explore issues of pH and the properties of preserves of all types is The Jamlady Cookbook. She has a scientific bent and tells you everything the layperson might want to know about the art of jam-making. Carol

Maybe her site was down for maintenance, Linda Lou. I did find it tonight. For those interested, she has posted an errata page with corrections to two of her pickle recipes. The publication date for the book is 2001, so it is quite recent. I do love the book and will continue to use it. Amendt offers some wonderful recipes for jams and syrups, for example. But I am careful about which recipes I use. Most of hers are quite safe, but as with the curd it's important to double-check with other sources. Linda Amendt's background is as a fair competitor and judge, not a food scientist. I give her credit that when I emailed she responded very promptly, but her answer referred to USDA standards, and the USDA Guide to Home Canning doesn't mention eggs or butter at all (unless I missed something). According to a commercial preserver, lemon curd does have a low pH and low water activity, but because of the eggs and butter the heat tends to break the curd unless you change the proportion of ingredients, so for me canning is a moot issue. It's quality, if for no other reason. Carol

I used bought lemon curd a couple of years ago, and asked the same question! Readinglady posted this recipe for use with orange curd. YUMMM. Chocolate Orange Paradise Bars from Rose Levy Beranbaum's "Rose's Christmas Cookies" posted by readinglady Chocolate Shortbread: 10 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/3 cup powdered sugar 1/3 cup granulated sugar 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa 1 cup bleached all-purpose flour Orange Curd: 1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened 4 large egg yolks 1/2 cup sugar pinch of salt 2 tablespoons grated orange zest Orange Chocolate Topping: 1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped 2 tablespoons heavy cream 1 1/2 teaspoons Grand Marnier Base: In medium bowl, whisk together sugars and cocoa. Add flour. Cut in butter, as for piecrust, until no dry particles of flour remain. Mixture should be small, crumbly pieces. [This step can also be done in the food processor, using cubes of chilled butter.] In a large bowl or a plastic bag, press mixture until it holds together, then knead lightly to form a dough. Place 1 oven rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8x8" baking pan with heavy-duty foil. Pat the dough into prepared pan. Use a fork to prick dough all over. Bake for 45 minutes. While the shortbread is baking, prepare the Topping. Topping: Pour the orange juice into a greased heatproof measure. Microwave on high until it is reduced to 2 tablespoons. This will take about 15 minutes. Watch closely toward the end as the juice gets very syrupy and reduces quickly. Stir the butter into the concentrated orange juice. In a heavy saucepan, beat the egg yolks and sugar with a wooden spoon until well blended. Stir in the orange mixture, salt and orange zest. The mixture will be very thick. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for about 3 minutes or until it pools up on surface when dropped from a spoon. (A candy thermometer will read 155-160 degrees) It must not be allowed to boil or it will curdle. Whenever steam occurs, remove the pan briefly from the heat, stirring constantly to prevent boiling. When the curd has thickened, pour it at once into a bowl. When the shortbread is baked, remove it from the oven, lower the temperature to 300 degrees, pour the orange curd on top of the shortbread and return to oven for 5 minutes. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. While this is cooling, prepare Orange Ganache Lace Topping. Topping: In a small bowl, place chopped chocolate. In microwave or saucepan, bring cream to the boiling point. Pour it on top of the chocolate and stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature and stir in the Grand Marnier. Pour the mixture into a quart-size resealable bag and close securely. Set aside. When the orange curd-covered shortbread has cooled, cut off a small corner from the bag. Drizzle swirls of chocolate over the top of the orange curd. (Save any leftovers for ice cream.) Before the chocolate drizzle sets, use the foil to lift out the shortbread onto a cutting surface. Use a long, sharp knife to cut the shortbread into thirds, then in six the other way. Wipe the blade after each cut. Store in an airtight container at room temperature, or in the refrigerator or freezer. Keeps 3 days at room temperature (individually wrapped in plastic), 3 weeks refrigerated (also individually wrapped) or 3 months frozen. Note from Readinglady's post: Personally, I can't imagine this lasting 3 weeks in the refrigerator. I hope you enjoy it. Let us know how it works with the bottled curd. I believe I ended up using it in a recipe Ann-t posted for Shortbread Tarts with Lemon Filling Posted by ann_t Source: Appeal Magazine Shortbread crust 1 cup butter softened 1/2 cup icing sugar 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 Tablespoon Cornstarch Filling 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice 1 Tablespoon grated lemon zest 1 cup granulated sugar 3 eggs well beaten 1/2 cups butter at room temperature Preheat oven to 325¢XF. Combine shortbread ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix to form dough. Divide dough into 24 pieces. Pat each portion of dough into a 1 1/2" (4 cm) tart tin, using your fingers to shape it into a shell. Prick the bottom of each tart with a fork. Bake 10 minutes and then prick bottoms again as the shells puff up. Bake an additional 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow tarts to cool on a wire rack before filling. To prepare lemon filling, combine juice and zest in a double boiler. Whisk in sugar, eggs and butter, blending well. Place over gently boiling water and whisk constantly until mixture thickens. Cool before using to fill tart shells. Lemon filling can be prepared ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator. Note from Thibeault¡¦s Table: I did not cook using a double boiler. I added the juice, zest, sugar and butter to the pot and brought to a boil. Then I beat the eggs and added some of the hot mixture to the eggs to temper before adding this egg mixture to the pan. I continued to stir over low heat until the mixture thickened. These were wonderful. My pics weren't very good, so I found the ones Ann took of her tarts on Thibeault's Table. Thanks Ann, for sharing!!

It worked beautifully! In addition to using the tartaric acid instead of lemon juice, I heated the cream/milk very very slowly, in a new larger double boiler (it is very hard to find a double boiler that will hold 2 quarts This one is marked 8 cups but that would be to the brim. I used 4 cups cream and 3 cups whole milk. ). It took almost 45 minutes to come up to 190 F. I did it while doing other work in the kitchen, so I was not standing over it. I might have done that too slowly, but I was playing it safe. I stirred very gently. In addition, I heated the water the tartaric acid was dissolved in. I dribbled that in while stirring. The cream/milk did not make the rapid break into whey and “shreds” like last year. Instead, it slowly formed soft, fluffy curds. Visually like very small curd cottage cheese. But fluffier. Most recipes call for immediate draining. If I had done that, I would have lost most of my volume. A few called for refrigeration over night, or 10-12 hours first. I did that. Much more of the cream/milk solution were solids by then. In the morning of the next day, I poured it into my cloth lined colander, set over a bowl, and put back in the refrigerator. Mid afternoon (~ 7 hours later), I had a couple of cups of whey. Regardless of what any of the recipes say, I have always found these to produce a lot of whey. I hung the bag then (outside the refrigerator) to continue dripping with more pressure. Overnight in the frig again. I think it has exuded all the whey it will. It is hung now. Squeezing produces nothing, though it might a bit when it warms up. Total whey is about 3 ½ cups, guesstimating, out of 7 cups cream/milk to start with.(BTW, the whey is delicious to drink. It’s hard to describe the taste. It’s got a slight sour cream tang) My daughter and I will be making the tiramisu tonight.