"Adam Schwartz" > wrote in message
news:I8mhb.76819$%h1.65723@sccrnsc02...

> I needed to make a quick dinner tonight, and
> I had some chicken, some milk, lemon juice and
> capers. <snip description of failed experiments>
> Now i want to know, what's the right way to add
> lemon to cream?

I make a lemon cream sauce for pasta quite often and haven't had a
problem. I keep a couple tablespoons of the pasta cooking water in
the pot when I pour the cooked pasta into a colander, return the pot
to the heat, add a knob of butter, "enough" heavy cream (probably
about 3/4 cup) and the juice of 1/2-1 lemon (depending on how strong
the lemon is). Let it come to the boil, simmer a couple of minutes
until the sauce starts to thicken, add salt and pepper to taste and
then drop the pasta back into the pot and stir to coat and absorb a
bit of the sauce. Couldn't be more simple and I've never had a
problem with it curdling. Great with a generous amount of arugula on
top; fresh parmesan is a nice addition, too.

Milk, on the other hand -- and even half-and-half IME -- is much more
prone to curdle than heavy cream.

-j