Don't Miss the Babies Eating Lemons Craze

I must have missed the Memo, but apparently there is a directive from Parenting Central to ensure that no baby is left behind in the lemon-eating category. Forget about documenting baby's first word or baby's first step. It's baby's first pucker that must be documented by proud parents everywhere and posted on the internet for all the world to see! Snap to it, now.

The Babies Eating Lemons phenomenon has filled the world---maybe the galaxy---with irresistibly cute videos of babies getting their first lemon pucker on. And when you catch a few of these videos, you'll know exactly why the Babies Eating Lemons craze has gone . . . well, crazy.

We hit the video and press "play." We know what is going to happen. We watch in rapt delight anyway. The lemon goes into baby's mouth. At first, a look of wondrous, but faint surprise dawns on baby's face. Then---here it comes---the spit out, the bleeccchhhh, and then, gloriously, the true, honest-to-goodness, apparently universal-to the-human race pucker.

Oh, yeah. We can almost taste that spritely lemon, bursting with citrus zing, shocking our own tastebuds and crinkling our own faces.

Of course, adorable babies doing adorable things is adorable. But I think there's more to our fascination with baby's first pucker than that. The thing is, many of us have a lifelong appreciation for the lemon pucker.

That's why there are multitudes of recipes for Lemon Pucker Pie, Cranberry Lemon Pucker Pie, Pucker Up Lemon Crunch Pie, and Pucker-up Lemon Meringue Pie.

We love lemon. We love lemon so much we even bake Pucker Power Lemon Polenta Cake with Lemon Curd Sauce and Lemon Thyme Syrup.

Pucker Power Polenta Cake with Lemon Curd Sauce and Lemon Thyme Syrup is not something you whip up during half-time, either. It is, as its submitter at Group Recipes delicately puts it, "not a 1-2-3 recipe. There is a medium degree of difficulty, but the results are really fantastic."

In a world gone mad with hassles and stress, the tart yellow lemon can still entice a person into "stirring constantly until the mixture reaches 185 degrees."

To really sell a recipe, such as the Barefoot Contessa's Pucker Up Lemon Cake with Lemon Curd, it is important for the submitter to note: "This will guarantee a pucker out of you!" If you're a food critic, a really great lemon, such as the thin-skinned, highly aromatic Meyer lemon, is one that "Chefs Pucker Up For."

We write poetry about lemon curd, treating it (and rightly so) like a fine wine. "Sometimes known as Lemon Butter in its birthplace England," the citrus limon lovers at Curdelicious write, lemon curd "has the intensity of a serious truffle, the richness of a creamy ice cream, and the over-the-top butteriness of a rich chocolate cake. But it also has the complexity and jazzy interplay of tart and sweet . . . And the second mouthful is more interesting than the first!"

That "jazzy interplay of tart and sweet" is none other than an ode to the lemon's famous pucker factor.

Where do I sign up?

It's no wonder that not only do we giggle at Babies Eating Lemons, but, on some level, we connect with them over the universal pucker induced by this gastronomically amazing yellow fruit. So isn't it time you checked out some Babies Eating Lemons? Here are some links to get you started:

"Top First Lemon Baby," by alanawez (with music by James Brown, "I Feel Good.") at Metacafe.

"Cute Baby Eating a Tasty Lemon," by 99Warrior at YouTube.

Babies Eating Lemons, by Robin Lee at Serious Eats.

Sources:

"Lemon Pucker Pie," Big Oven.

"Cranberry Lemon Pucker Pie," The Fairymum.

"Pucker Up Lemon Crunch Pie," Recipezaar.

"Pucker Up Lemon Meringue Pie," jkmassonrecipes.

"Pucker Power Lemon Polenta Cakes with Lemon Curd Sauce and Lemon Thyme Syrup," Group Recipes.

"Pucker Up Lemon Cake with Lemon Curd," Just Baking.

Karola Saekel, "Chefs pucker up for Meyer lemons," SF Gate.

"Our Curds," Curdelicious.

Alanawez, "Top First Lemon Baby," Metacafe.

99Warrior, "Cute Baby Eating a Tasty Lemon," YouTube.

Robin Lee, "Babies Eating Lemons," Serious Eats.