Making Clotted Cream in California

As any Brit who has tried to live in the USA will tell you, finding cream of the same range and quality as that found in the UK isn't possible. If you have only tried clotted cream, pasteurised, from a jar, then you haven't yet had the full experience of how insanely good this thick, yellow, butter-nibble-crusted epitome of dairy fat can be.

In the absence of Cornwall, a lover of traditional cream teas might be wont to experiment with ways of trying to recreate clotted cream and after many failed attempts I came up with a technique that won't replace the real thing, but will win over the pretender that you can otherwise only pick up off a shelf.

Don't start with milk or your yield will be too small. Start with cream. Raw, upasteurised cream gives the best results. I can't give you a recommendation for raw cream in your area but in California Claravale's raw cream is the best contender for the job that I have found. Organic Pastures version works too. You can even make an ok version with pasteurised cream (I tried Straus Organic), but raw is definitely the best thing to use.

Set aside several hours, this is a long project. Pour a pint of cream into your largest, non reactive, clean frying-pan. I use a large All-Clad fry pan, you need the largest surface area you can get. Put over your lowest heat setting, I use 'warm' on my ancient electric stove. If you use gas, I am guessing you will need a diffuser. After about an hour, a crust will have formed on the surface. Scrape it off with a non-slotted spoon into a bowl, keeping the crust facing upwards. Repeat 3 or 4 times until most of the cream has thickened and been scraped into the bowl. Refrigerate over night. The next morning you should have a thick, gloopy, knobbly-surfaced cream which you can spread onto a freshly baked scone.

Or why not just save some time and spread it directly onto your thighs?




Archives
2006 | The Warming Hut
2005 | Jammy Vodka

© 2009 Sam Breach

Making Clotted Cream in California