[Sca-cooks] TIMTAM

[Jones, Craig]

Vincenzo Martino Mazza wrote:
>I need 2 cups of Cr=E8me Fra=EEche for a dish that I will
>be making this Saturday.

>Cr=E8me Fra=EEche
>
>1 part sour cream
>2 parts whipped cream
SNIP

If you did this, you'd want to use *whipping cream*, not whipped cream.

>1 cup heavy cream
>3 tablespoons buttermilk

I suspect this would taste closer to the French Creme Fraiche than
the recipe above.

Creme Fraiche has a bit more bite and is runnier than American Sour
Cream. And NO STABILIZERS - of course, food snob that i am, i NEVER
buy sour cream (or yogurt) that has gums or gelatin added. I'm an
inveterate label reader (no, not an invertebrate. I have backbone!)

When i lived in France in the early 1970s, i went to a Glacier (place
that ONLY serves ice cream - sit-down, somewhat formal) with my
French friends. It was closed most of the year and only open during
the Summer, from about May through September.

I order something lovely, with a name like La Cardinale, made of
layers of several "red fruit" ice creams and sherbets/sorbets
(strawberry and raspberry and i think something else).

I took a spoonful and stopped short. The ice cream was *sour*! I
thought it had gone bad. But all my French friends were digging into
theirs. So i offered someone a taste of mine to see their reaction.
They behaved as if it tasted just fine, so i kept eating.

I figured it out quite a while later that the ice cream was made of
Creme Fraiche!

Now, i remember these old ice cream moulds from my Midwestern
childhood, but i never ate anything made in one, just the usual
scoops. Those moulds make a real Bombe, not those shaped popsicles
from the so-called "ice cream" truck.

Anahita