Creme De La Cream...

“A cup of coffee - real coffee - home-browned, home-ground, home-made, that comes to you dark as a hazel-eye, but changes to a golden bronze as you temper it with cream that never cheated, but was real cream from its birth, thick, tenderly yellow, perfectly sweet, neither lumpy nor frothing on the Java: such a coffee is a match for twenty blue devils, and will exorcise them all.” Henry Ward Beecher.

Cream varies in thickness because they contain varying amounts of butterfat. The shelf life of cream is increase by pasteurization. In many countries, cream is sold in several grades depending on the total butterfat content.

Cream can be dried to a powder for shipment to distant markets. Cream skimmed from milk may be called "sweet cream" to distinguish it from whey cream skimmed from whey, a by-product of cheese-making. Whey cream has a lower fat content and tastes more salty, tangy and "cheesy".

Cream produced by cows (particularly Jersey Cows) that graze on natural pastures often contains natural carotenoid pigments made from the plants they eat; this gives the cream a slight yellow colour, therefore the name of the yellowish-white color, cream. Cream from goat's milk, or from cows fed indoors on grain or grain-based pellets; however, is white.

Cream is used as an ingredient in many foods, including ice cream, sauces, soups, stews, puddings, and some custard bases, and is also used for cakes. Irish cream is an alcoholic liqueur which blends cream with whiskey and coffee. Cream is also used in curries such as masala dishes.

Cream (usually light/single cream or half and half) is often added to coffee.

For cooking purposes, both single and double cream can be used in cooking, although the former can separate when heated, usually if there is a high acid content. That is why most chefs preferre to use double cream or full-fat crème fraîche when cream is added to a hot sauce, to prevent it from separating or "splitting".

In sweet and savoury custards such as those found in flan fillings, crème brûlées and crème caramels, both types of cream are called for in different recipes depending on how rich a result is called for. It is useful to note that double cream can also be thinned down with water to make an approximation of single cream if necessary.

“The friendly cow, all red and white,I love with all my heart;

She gives me cream with all her might,

To eat with apple-tart.”

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

Here is a list of different types of cream and by-products:

Coffee Cream: or Pouring Cream: has a thin consistency. It cannot be whipped.

Single Cream or Fresh Cream: is slightly thicker, can be whipped and is used for enriching sauces and soups.

Double Thick Cream: is thicker (it may be whisked to a peak) and has a fat content of 59%. This is the cream that is used with fresh fruits, decorate cakes and pasteries.

Sour Cream: has been cultured or fermented by adding lactic acid bacteria, which makes it thick and slightly tangy in flavour. It is mainly used in cooking, dips and over jacket potatoes.

Creme Fraiche: is slightly aged, cultured heavy cream. It is widely used for sauce making. Mexican crema (or cream espesa) is similar to crème fraîche.

Clotted Cream: is common in the United Kingdom. This cream has been slowly heated to dry and to thicken, producing a very high-fat (55%) product. This is similar to Indian malai.

Whipped Cream: is made by whisking or mixing air into cream with more than 30% fat, to turn the liquid cream into a soft solid. Nitrous oxide may also be used to make whipped cream.

Smetana: is a heavy cream product (35-40% milk fat) Central and Eastern European sour cream. Rjome or rømme is Norwegian sour cream containing 35% milk fat, similar to Icelandic rjómi.

Butter is made by churning cream to separate the butterfat and buttermilk. This can be done by hand or by machine. (Buttermilk is the liquid left after making butter. It can also be used in scones and rusks.)

TIPS FOR WHIPPING CREAM:

The cream must be well chilled.

Sweeten only once the cream is whipped. Sugar decreases stability and make the cream harder to whip. Use powedered sugar instead of granulated sugare for best results.

The cream shoud not be over whipped. You should stop beating once the cream forms stiff peaks. If it is whipped any longer, it will become granular and then into butter and whey.