Giant lemon = lemon butter

Last night I came home from a lovely afternoon spent with the Fabulous Kristina, only to find some serious lemon measurement going on. Don't get me wrong, the fire was on the kids were bathed, all the essentials done. But then I see tape measures and scales and measuring cups, all centred around THE lemon. This lemon has been weighed and measured many times since being picked 2 weeks ago. It was picked due to it's fascinating size, but was picked a little early as it would be devastating to see such a wonder of the natural world eaten by sugar gliders!

Photos have been taken every-which-way (including next to Charlie's head!). So what was the verdict? It weighed 735 grams whole. It's circumfrence was 35cm. It produced 240ml of juice, and that was without including the apparent mess all over the bench because the lemon was too big for the juicer! Yes, it was one of Mark's prouder moments. This was the biggest measured so far! And to be able to compare, 2 other lemons were juiced; one from the big old lemon tree next to our creek, the other from the 1 1/2 year old lemon tree in a large pot next to our fence. They averaged 100ml, so that made our whopper a WHOPPER! It also meant we now had about 440ml of lemon juice.

"Well, I suppose you'd better made lemon butter," was Mark's suggestion.

Now, when it comes to lemon butter, not just any old recipe will do. So I dug out Aunty Elsa's recipe and got to work. It was a good thing I'd bought some eggs from our post master/neighbour on Friday. Here's what's involved:

Lemon Butter:

Place 6 eggs in a double saucepan and beat well. For this, I use a pyrex bowl, while bringing half an inch of water to the boil in a large saucepan.

Add 125g of butter (not margaring people!), 500g of castor sugar, juice of 3 large lemone (or one giant whopper and 2 normal ones!!) and the grated rind of one lemon.

Cook this, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, over the simmering water until thick. Now, this should be the consistency of custard, it should coat the back of the spoon so that if you run your finger through it, you can see the line you've made. Now, I'll admit, this takes awhile to cook, but it is worth it, and you can chat on the phone for awhile anyway!!

Wait for it to cool, then put it into 4 or 5 small jars, sterilised by boiling them in water for 10 minutes. Now, Mark has this on toast and saos, but I also make little lemon tarts with it. In the freezer section of the supermarket, you can find little shortcrust tart cases. Bake them in the oven according to the instructions, and fill them with the lemon butter. A small jar also makes a wonderful gift, if it lasts long enough. Personally, I'm happy to just eat it from the jar with a spoon!

Have a go, and enjoy! Let me know how you go!!