[way, way, OT] What is clotted cream?

[NoOneofConsequence]

If you can't get clotted cream, for cooking you could improvise with double cream - there's a US based company called King Island Dairy that export their double cream here and I've used it as a substitutue for clotted.

Do not, whatever you do, be fooled by "thickened cream" - this is just cream with a thickener added, often just cornstarch. It ain't the same thing at all.

 

[Tratyn Runewind]

Hello,

Well, clotted cream is enjoyed by at least one of the most famous characters in fantasy literature (and, nowadays, film):

"At last Gandalf pushed away his plate and jug - he had eaten two whole loaves (with masses of butter and honey and clotted cream) and drunk at least a quart of mead - and he took out his pipe."

(The Hobbit, chapter 7 "Queer Lodgings")

Never tasted the stuff myself, though.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Clotted cream is basically heavy, unhomogenized, unpasteurized cream thickened over the stove. It is really not hard to make, You may want to try using heavy cream, or if you can get it, double cream. (I can get it at our local organic market, if you can find a dairy farm that retails it is very easy.) Heat it in a shallow pan over very low heat until it begins steaming, but before it boils, don't stir around 85c is what you are looking for, a thermometer is a very good idea here. The top will turn yellowish, like the skin from a pudding (Which it basically is). Let cool, refrigerate after cooling, stir the crust back in. Very much like a non sweet, very thin, pudding or a non-sour yogurt. (Which is made much the same way, but over a much lower heat, abd a longer period of time, )which allows it to sour as it is kept warm.

The Auld Grump, how can anyone not like clotted cream? Your arteries start hardening just from looking at it!