SC - Clotted Cream taste test

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Kateryn de Develyn wrote:
>I obtained some clotted cream (commercial - in a jar) yesterday. 
>
>So I conducted a little taste test since I have some medieval 
>recipes calling for clotted cream.  It tasted exactly like the 
>homemade butter you can make by shaking heavy whipping cream(for 
>what seems like forever), or unsalted butter (available in the 
>freezer section of your grocery store).

I get unsalted butter in the regular dairy case right next to the 
salted butter. As for overwhipping to the butter stage, you can do 
this with electric beaters when making whipped cream - whip for too 
long and you get whipped butter, so to speak. I think you can do this 
in a blender too - you can't use the blender to make whipped cream as 
it doesn't aerate, but it will butterize :-)

>It does not taste anything like the clotted cream which is made 
>essentially like evaporated milk.  IE: cream set near an oven vent 
>which is set on low heat (250 degrees) for overnight.  Now, that 
>cream which does get a very thick skin on top, tastes a lot like 
>evaporated milk.
>
>Which is the most period? The commerical stuff or the top-of-oven 
>stuff?  Probably the top-of-oven stuff.  How would I make a 
>substitution for it out of modern ingredients?  I would use unsalted 
>butter (for the appropriate texture) and a tablespoon or two of 
>evaporated milk (for the appropriate flavor).
>
>Has anyone else tried making clotted cream or substituting for it?

The clotted cream i had long ago in England had a slightly sour taste 
- - which was fine with me, i like sour (sour cream, yogurt, cream 
cheese, laban/lebneh (a Levantine delight sorta like cream cheese, 
but made by hanging full milk yogurt in cheese cloth overnight), 
kefir, etc.).

The "buttery" stuff sounds real wrong. What i had tasted like thick, 
slightly soured cream. It was not as dense as modern American sour 
cream - it was still liquidy, but very thick.

The "evaporated milk" stuff sounds odd too. What i had didn't have 
this sort of flavor at all.

Can't imagine what you could use as a substitute. Mascarpone? I 
wouldn't mix butter and evaporated milk as that wouldn't make a 
product even remotely close to what i had in England.

Closest i can think of among the products available to me here in San 
Francisco Bay Area - i'd buy a heck of a lot of the plain unflavored 
"Brown Cow Farm Yogurt-Cream At The Top", and skim off the cream. 
Listees, if you are unfamiliar with this delight: "Brown Cow Farm 
Yogurt-Cream At The Top" is made of unhomogenized milk. When you open 
the container, there's this sheet of firm (dare i say clotted) cream 
on top. (they now also make a non-fat yogurt which is good, but not 
as good...)

I realize it must be bad for me, but it tastes soooo good. When i eat 
a little cup, i do NOT stir it, but peel back the skin and push it to 
one side, eat most of the yogurt, then eat the last of the yogurt 
with the cream. Yummm. My favorite flavors are plain, maple (uses 
only real maple syrup for a very subtle flavor), and lemon. They have 
all sorts of other standard flavors - raspberry, strawberry, 
blueberry, peach, apricot-mango, chocolate, coffee. It is made 
locally.

I don't know if there are similar products elsewhere. I suspect that 
clotting cream on the stove top invites local native wild spores or 
bacteria to aid in the process...

Anahita
now i am going to bake 168 Excellent Small Cakes and then go shopping 
for perishable vegetables.