curd

From Middle English curd, a metathetic variant of crud, crudde (“coagulated substance”). More at crud.

• enPR: kû(r)d, IPA^(key): /kɜː(ɹ)d/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)d
• Homophone: Kurd

curd (plural curds)

1. The part of milk that coagulates when it sours or is treated with enzymes; used to make cottage cheese, dahi, etc.
2. The coagulated part of any liquid.
3. The edible flower head of certain brassicaceous plants.
   • R. Thompson

     Broccoli should be cut while the curd, as the flowering mass is termed, is entire.

   • F. Burr

     Cauliflowers should be cut for use while the head, or curd, is still close and compact.

   • 2010, Geoff Stebbings, Growing Your Own Fruit and Veg For Dummies, Chichester, W. Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, pages 162–163:

     This beautiful vegetable [Romanesco broccoli] looks rather like a green cauliflower designed by a mathematician and has lime-green 'spiralled' curds. The curds are nutty and tasty, and romanesco is worth growing just for its good looks. You can use romanesco in the same ways that you would normally use cauliflower but the flavour is sweeter and they look far more impressive. I try to leave them in large pieces when serving them because they're so beautiful.

• crud
• curds and whey
• lemon curd

• buttermilk
• milk
• whey
• yoghurt

curd (third-person singular simple present curds, present participle curding, simple past and past participle curded)

1. (intransitive) To form curd; to curdle.
2. (transitive) To cause to coagulate or thicken; to cause to congeal; to curdle.
   • Shakespeare

     Does it curd thy blood / To say I am thy mother?

• curdle

• CRUD, crud

curd

1. Alternative form of crudde