Yeah, i made a grape pie exactly once.
This is likely the pie recipe I tried:
Some varieties are good multiple ways. But a lot of wine grapes are mostly just good for wine, except possibly for people who have unusual tastes.
I’ve also seen them called “pie cherries”. Probably a better marketing term. They’re not as sweet as sweet cherries, but they’re often not really sour, more what I’d call tart. Some of them are quite good eaten fresh or plain frozen, at least IMO.
Yup. Slipskin grapes – some people who eat them fresh spit out skin and seeds together, filtering them through their teeth. Takes a bit of practice, and best done outdoors.
It’s possible to make white wine from dark purple or dark red grapes – just get the skins out at the time of pressing, so the juice doesn’t sit on the skins.
– Grape pie is a Finger Lakes specialty in season, but only some people make it, and a lot even of those who like it buy it instead of making it themselves. I think there’s probably some equipment or some technique for getting the seeds out, but I’ve never made one – I ate it once and didn’t like it enough to bother figuring out how to make it. There are IMO a lot of things that make better pie and are easier to work with.
In the UK cherry curd is becoming somewhat of the thing. Still specialized, so you’ll find it in a farm shop rather than a store, but available - which it wasn’t ten years ago.
Are curds well known outside the UK? Fruit juice*, an egg, butter sugar, cornflour to set, cook slowly til thickened. I’ve made lemon (ubiquitous and the best), lime and bitter orange, but never found a source of fresh sour cherries.
j
* - for cherry or (say) wild plum I assume you would just use the pulped fruit.
I’ve had boughten lemon curd, but never made it myself.
Ah. Thanks - perhaps I didn’t need to add the technical explanation then. 
j
I tried a food mill, the second year I made it. Didn’t work much better than a sieve, really.
All in all, while we enjoyed it, it was too much work.
I’ve made lemon curd. My recipe is just lemon juice, lemon zest, egg yolk, and sugar. No butter, no starch (like corn flour). The stuff I’ve made is better than the best i could buy. It tastes fresher. But it’s a lot of work. I make it once a year as an ingredient for my passover pie. (The egg whites go into the crust, which is just meringue.)
I’ve never seen any other fruit curds, but i bet they are tasty.
Incidentally, in Hungary there is a bit of a nostalgia brand of grape soda called Traubiszoda. It was developed and became popular during Communist times and had a bit of a resurgence when I was there in the late 90s/00s. (I assume it is still selling.) It’s made from the must of saszlas/chasselas grapes (white) that are used as both table grapes and winemaking grapes, though I don’t recall ever seeing a bottle of wine made with that varietal. Perhaps it’s more often used in blends or for home winemaking. Anyway, I loved the stuff. A clear, effervescent soda that pours like a 7-Up, but has a light, refreshing white grape flavor to it. A nice change of pace from the usual citrus.
Ooops - yeah, lemon zest, I forgot to mention that. I think the cornflour just simplifies the set, but no butter? Surprising. To me that’s part of the definition of a curd.
Lemon curd has a really complex flavor, something you don’t appreciate until you’ve tried lime - I mean it’s okay, but it’s startlingly one dimensional by comparison - a real disappointment. Bitter orange is good, but still not as good as lemon. I may try an orange and lemon combo this coming marmalade season.
Here’s the recipe I use - I just swap out the fruit as required. It isn’t that much work, and it’s pretty foolproof. And yes, it is much better than bought curd. (Aside: I’ll be passing through the National Trust shop at Nymans tomorrow, and I’m now resolved to buy some of the cherry curd.)
j
Close to unheard of around here, though I think you can get them in specialty shops.
Indeed. I’ve heard of things like lemon curd, but they aren’t a common thing.
If you ask an American about curds, they’ll probably first think about cheese curds, which have grown in popularity as a snack in recent decades.
To be fair, the curd i make isn’t a final product, it’s part of making a pie. And i fold it into whipped cream to make lemon cream. So the final product has a lot of butterfat. But what i make is similar to the topping on lemon squares. It may not be a proper lemon curd. It’s delicious, though.
I tried to make it in the instant pot, once, but that brought the temp too high, i think, and it ended up tasting like store-bought. Still good, but without that fresh zing.
This is one of the greatest typos in the history of the Dope.
Lol, yeah, it’s a very apropos typo.
When I lived in Malaysia I had the treat called kaya (literally, ‘rich’) for breakfast every day. You might call it coconut curd: made from coconut milk, eggs, and sugar.
That sounds like a nice candy. I’m not sure I’d want it for breakfast.
It’s better with butter. It smooths the flavors and improves the texture. It’s the classic recipe.
Agreed - no starch.
It’s absolutely delicious (homemade; can’t speak to the store-bought). It’s typically served at English tea with pastries (crumpets, scones, etc).
It’s not hard to make - just fussy, cooking it over low heat in a double boiler.
Not candy but similar to lemon curd, only with coconut instead of lemon. I used to spread it on toast.