More than once, when talking to some random person here about the difference between life in the USA versus life in England, a phrase like 'whatever we have England, you have it bigger in the USA' is almost assuredly going to come up. There is good basis for that argument but this past week, I further explored one area where the English have the Americans beat: cream.
I mentioned the cream section when I was discussing the custard section at the market. This past week, I had the wife pick me up some cream -- I wasn't very specific about what kind but I think I guessed at 'single cream' and even then I wasn't all that sure what single cream was. I needed it to mix with the fresh horseradish root (awesome) we had just pulled out of our quickly rotting garden (too much rain!) to serve with the beef joint that was marinating in the fridge.
The wife returned with double cream. Again, I wasn't really sure what it was. I popped it open and gazed in amazement. This stuff was thick. Thicker than cool whip, thicker than mayo, thicker than sour cream. It was somewhere between mallo-whip and butter. When I drink milk, I drink skim. But I love cream -- I could drink a quart of half and half as easy as the quart of custard. Ever drank a Dutch Whistle? It's no secret its addictive powers are based on fat globules. A spoonful of this double cream was heavenly.
I broke out the bible of food knowledge, On Food And Cooking by Harold McGee, and found a very handy chart for comparing U.S. and Europe terms for cream. The facts made my arteries stiffen momentarily.
- (USA) Half and Half 12% fat
- (Europe) Single Cream 18% fat
- (USA) Whipping Cream 35% fat
- (USA) Heavy Whipping Cream 38% fat
- (Europe) Double Cream 48% fat
- (Europe) Clotted Cream 55% fat
- (Europe) Plastic Cream 65-85% fat
Cheers!
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3 comments:
Could you use that to make Dutch Whistle Custard?
A dessert that tastes oh so good yet gets you blitzed. Hmm. The lack of shaking over ice might make it a bit... heavy in the gut. Maybe Dutch Whistle Ice Cream made with plastic cream is the way to go.
Is double cream to heavy to whisk? It could be a Dutch Whistle Whip.
Dutch Whip? Dutch Whip? Four Dutch Whips….
I know it isn’t a true Dutch Whistle if you use the good stuff, but I might have to keep my eyes open at duty free for ingredients. Unless you can get knock off Kahlua. I would think that you should be able to get cheap vodka and a knock off of Irish Cream.
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