[Sca-cooks] Cream
Holly Stockley
hollyvandenberg at hotmail.com
Wed Jun 22 04:01:04 PDT 2005
The CLOSEST would be heavy cream. But even that isn't quite the same
animal. Two problems with modern dairy products.... One, they're
standardized for butterfat content. Whole milk at 4 percent, heavy cream at
35-40, etc. Largely because it's not the same coming out of the cow. The
super-volume modern holsteins are lucky to top 3.8%. Guernseys and Jerseys
have been know to make it to 8%. The dairy industry has created categories
to ensure a consistent product. The second issue is that they've all been
homogenized. Which means that the butterfat globules have ben broken down
into tiny particles that no longer seek to coalesce. This means that the
cream doesn't separate and rise to the top. It also changes the texture and
consistency somewhat.
Depending on what you're making, you MIGHT get away with standard heavy
cream. But I'd probably go down to the nearest healthfood store and check
their cooler. Where I am, you can commonly buy unhomogenized organic milk.
Then dig the plug of cream off the top of the container and voila! The
percent butterfat in the original milk batch won't affect that percent
butterfat in the cream, but it will affect the AMOUNT of cream on the top of
the container.
That's the closest you can get to real medieval sweet cream short of buying
raw milk. Which, in my state, is essentially not legal.
BTW - butterfat also varies based on the diet of the cow. Ingestion of
certain types of "roughage" or grasses makes it go up. New spring grass is
the best. Hence, the month of may is often the "cream of the crop," if you
will, for cream production in pasture-fed cattle. I suspect this may be why
markham sings the praises of May as the best month for making butter.
Probably much MUCH more than you wanted to know...
~F
>
>In 15th c. English recipes calling for "swete creme of cow mylk", what
>would be the closest store-bought product? Light cream, heavy cream, etc.?
> Thanks.
>
>Brighid ni Chiarain
>Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
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