How interesting! I hope you'll tell us more about the marketing problem in return for our thoughts.
Right, where to begin. Straight 'sweet' cream. I grew up in Canada, where the only creams available were roughly what are sold as single and whipping cream in the UK. Anything thicker (other than pasteurised cream in tins, for some reason) was simply not available from the shops, I'm told because it was regarded as unhealthy. In the 1960s? I wonder. Anyway, I didn't know anything else existed until my parents-in-law to be introduced me to a true UK-style double cream sold at a farmers' market stall. It was a revelation. Smooth, rich, it tamed sharp fruit pies wonderfully. Less sugar, more cream!
Now we're in the UK I take cream for granted. I make rice pudding with single cream, or milk and double cream. It's such a marvellous combination of flavours, caramelised cream and sugar and vanilla. I serve Mississippi Mud Pie (a very soft chocolate cake) with slightly sweetened whipped cream, enjoying mouthfuls of pure dark heavy chocolate flavour before clearing my palate slightly with a little vanilla cream so the next chocolate hit hits even harder :-) I make ice creams: freezing cuts the richness, which is why 'ice creams' made with milk are enriched with milk powder and innominate oils (some of them have a distinct 'coconut' flavour even when they're meant to be vanilla). I make real custard with single cream and eggs to put on trifle, because the smooth richness of the creamy custard is essential to the dish; I top that with very slightly sweetened whipped cream to gain a contrast in texture and subtle flavour. Meringues with whipped cream -- it dilutes the sugar and gives a contrasting texture. Eclairs, profiteroles, mmmm. Chocolate 'blanc mange': make it with nothing but single cream, the best dark chocolate bar you can find, sugar to taste, and cornflour. A dish fit to serve to *anyone*, especially if topped with a thin layer of chocolate to crack as if it were creme brulee, and a little pouring cream to dilute the intensity if desired. And just plain double cream poured over fruit pie, crumble, baked apple, treacle pudding, or lightly whipped and spooned onto the same. Mmmmmmmm. Summer pudding and cream. What else is summer for?
Re-reading that it seems I don't use straight cream much in savoury foods. I've never deglazed a pan with cream to make a sauce; I always use wine or water or stock. I sometimes use a little single cream instead of water to make shortcrust pastry even shorter, but yoghurt works as well. I'm not a great fan of cream sauces on stuff (but having said that, Potato Gratin is best made with double cream, every time). Thinking about it, I buttociate cream in savoury dishes with 'heavy' and 'rich'. A style of food I don't enjoy, so I don't cook it or eat it when eating out. Cream in desserts is another matter entirely, perhaps because it's almost always cold, smooth... creamy.
MeetingFollowing up to Judith Umbria I usually drive straight through Glasgow, not because I don't like it (no real idea what its like) but because I'm much more interested in the western highlands...
To me it seems 'sweet' cream smooths flavours, provides a contrast to sharp or powerful flavours, and when used alone introduces a certain coolness in the mouth (thinking of the way that the cream filling of an eclair feels when I eat it).
Devon butter pats 576I'm sure that's the reason but I can't help feeling that if somebody does go in for it, they'll do well. There's a tremendous...
I don't use that newfangled creme fraiche, I stick with good old soured cream. That I do use in cooking, to finish pork stews or soups, as an addition to scones or baking powder biscuits, on top of potatoes, included in dressings for vegetables or pasta. I disliked it as a child, but now the combination of cream and acid seems terribly adult :-) And perhaps it tastes less blatantly 'rich' than the sweet cream.
I'm certain shoppers avert their eyes from fresh cream in the supermarket chill compartments because 'everyone' knows cream is fattening and therefore bad for their health. I think that's foolishness. In general, if you ate it every day you'd have a problem, but once a week or so, there's no problem at all, especially if the rest of your diet is 'healthy'. Besides which, most of the people studiously *not* buying cream will have other items loaded with fat in their trolleys. Crisps. Oven chips. Frozen pizza. Cook-chill meals full of innominate oils as well as salt and sugar. Give me innocent, honest cream any day :-)
regards sarah
Devon butter pats 575Exactly. People having e.g. a cream tea, use their knife to cut the butter, then they cut the scone in half and some cut a portion off that. They spread it with...
-- Think of it as evolution in action.
