When it goes wrong · TO STRAIN
Lemon curd or custard has firm little flecks in it.
Can you save it?
Reviewed for this symptom
Recoverable if you move now: pass it through a fine sieve while it is still hot and pourable, pushing gently with a spatula; the flecks stay behind. If it has cooled and thickened, warm it gently over a low heat until it loosens, then sieve.
How to confirm the diagnosis
Observable cues, not inferred user state
- Small firm specks in an otherwise smooth mixture
- It is still warm and pourable
- The pan wall or base was hot enough to set egg on contact
Is this what you're seeing?
Near neighbours, different causes
- The stock is cloudy even though it was strained.
- The sieve clogs and the liquid stops moving.
- Half the liquid is gone with the solids.
What actually happened
Only this symptom
Egg that set on the pan wall or in the first seconds of heat. It has to be caught in a fine sieve while the mixture is still hot and pourable — once it cools and thickens it will not pass.
The full mechanism
Shared by every strain failure
A strainer is a hole-size decision. A colander's holes are millimetres wide and hold back pasta and vegetables; a fine sieve's mesh is a fraction of a millimetre and holds back cooked egg strands, seeds, tea leaves and the fine debris that makes a stock cloudy; a cloth goes finer still. Hot liquid flows faster than cold because its viscosity is lower, which is why a stock is strained straight from the heat and a curd is pushed through while it is still warm and loose. The instinct to press the solids through with a spoon is the thing to unlearn: pressure forces fine particles through the mesh along with the liquid, and that is exactly what turns a clear broth cloudy and a smooth sauce grainy. Let it drip, tap the rim to keep it moving, and accept that the last spoonful stays behind.
The full TO STRAIN lesson — how to tell, where to practise it, what it carries to.
Next time
Prevent this specific failure
Temper the eggs with hot liquid, keep the heat low and the whisk moving, and sieve straight from the pan every time.
What right looks like
Shared by every strain failure
- The stream through the sieve slows to steady drips — the liquid has gone, and what is left is solids, not more liquid.
- Held up to the light, a strained stock or syrup is clear enough to see through; cloudiness means something got pushed through.
- The back of a spoon drawn across a strained sauce or curd leaves a smooth track with no specks.
- The solids left in the mesh are wet but no longer sitting in liquid.