Our rhubarb patch has been very productive. One of the by-products of processing a recent harvest was a small jar of smoky pink rhubarb juice, which struck me as a perfect flavour to use in my slow-cook curd recipe.

It worked and I got a well set curd with a subtle rhubarb flavour. However, the colour was not what I expected. It was not the strong yellow of a lemon curd but came nowhere near the pink of the juice either; I think the best description would be ivory.

Perhaps I should not be surprised; my recent attempt at a lime curd worked well on the taste front but also came out looking pretty much like lemon curd (rather than the subtle green the book had promised). Maybe that is why lemon is the flavouring of choice; fighting against all that butter and egg yolk, you would need an intense colour to win out in the mix.

Hmmnnn…. beetroot curd anyone? (Not with my beetroot through — they are a white variety)