Yes, today feels like spring. Finally. I have my (newly cleaned) windows open. But what I really want to talk about is kitchen thermometers. I'm going to a friend's house for Sunday lunch (a lovely British tradition) tomorrow, and I'm bringing dessert. I decided to make a lemon tart, and found a really nice recipe in the "Baking" cookbook that L&R gave me last year. There's a whole story behind the 'creamy lemon tart' - some fellow in France emulsifying lots of butter - so I decided to make it.
The recipe calls for a double boiler, constant whisking, and heating the lemon curd to a temp of 180 degrees. Often the issue I've had with thermometers is that they don't measure high enough heat - say if you're making caramel, candy or jelly (generally 250 degrees). I actually have two kitchen thermometers, and they both go beyond 180 degrees. My problem this time was that I had a really hard time keeping the thermometer in the mixture while stirring at the same time. I dropped each of them into the pot at least two times. I also got a steam burn on one of my hands. I'm sure it was funny to watch, but it was frustrating and I actually never got the curd beyond 170 degrees. I just kind of eyeballed it. I'll find out tomorrow if it really worked or not.
What I'd really like to have is some sort of thermometer that you could clip to the edge of the pan, and that would stick out away from the side so you could get an accurate temperature. Does this exist? If not, it should.
Overall assessment - kitchen thermometer=fail.
Update: I'm trying out the Foodista web site to drive traffic to this site. Here's a link: (btw, this is NOT the recipe that I used for my lemon curd...)
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