All about Cream

guido · Site Admin Joined: Oct 18, 2004 Posts: 390 Location: Italy

New evidence suggests that cream confers all sorts of health benefits. The only problem is deciding which of the many kinds to go for.

Why are some creams tangy, others bland?

Traditionally, cream was collected from milk that had been left to stand unrefrigerated in the dairy, ripening naturally with the help of "safe" bacteria. The mellow, ripe-tasting cream that rose to the surface of the milk would then be skimmed off.

Modern food safety precautions now require milk to be chilled within moments of the cow being milked; cream collected from this milk will have a bland but rich taste. Some modern creams (eg crème fraîche) are ripened while refrigerated, using live bacterial cultures which give a tangy flavour. These lack the rich, fresh taste of more traditionally-made cream.

How does each type differ?

In the United States, cream is usually sold as:

* Half and half (10.5-18% fat)
* Light, coffee, or table cream (18-30% fat)
* Medium cream (25% fat)
* Whipping or light whipping cream (30-36% fat)
* Heavy or heavy whipping cream (36% or more)
* Extra-heavy or manufacturer's cream (38-40% or more), generally not available at retail.

Not all grades are defined by all jurisdictions, and the exact fat content ranges vary.

In the United Kingdom, cream is usually sold as:

* Half cream (12%)
* Single cream or light cream (18%)
* Whipping cream (35%)
* Double cream (48%)

Other cream products

Sour cream in the U.S. is cream (18% or more milk fat) that has been subjected to a bacterial culture that produces lactic acid (0.5%+), which sours and thickens it.

Crème fraîche is a heavy cream slightly soured with bacterial culture, but not as sour or as thick as American sour cream. Mexican crema (or cream espesa) is similar to crème fraîche. Smetana is a Central and Eastern European sour cream.

In the UK, clotted cream (similar to Indian malai) is a very high-fat (55%) product processed with heat.

Butter is made by churning cream.

Sour cream is a dairy product rich in fats obtained by fermenting a regular cream by certain kinds of Lactobacillus bacteria. The bacterial culture, introduced either deliberately or naturally, produces lactic acid, which sours and thickens the cream.
Commercial sour cream contains from 18 to 20 percent fat, and gets its characteristic tang from the lactic acid created by the bacteria. Sour cream often contains additional ingredients such as gelatin, rennin, and vegetable enzymes. Made out of heavy ceam.
Light sour cream contains about 40 percent less fat than regular sour cream because it is made from half and half rather than cream. Nonfat sour cream is thickened with stabilizers.

Whipped cream
Cream with 30% or more of fat can be turned into whipped cream by mixing it with air. This roughly doubles the cream's volume as air bubbles are captured in a network of fat droplets. (Whipped cream is said to have been invented in 1671 by François Vatel for a banquet in honour of Louis XIV, though it is likely that it was actually known long before this.) If the whipping is continued, the fat droplets stick together and form butter; the remaining liquid is buttermilk.

Chantilly cream (French: crème Chantilly) is whipped cream with sugar and vanilla.

from: www.wikipedia.org
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In vino veritas!

kerismummy · Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 9:53 pm Post subject:

mmmmm, clotted cream on warm scones, yummy!