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covering blanket of fat. The bubbles of steam pop and they make a symphony of sound that we
hear as sizzle. Oil, lard and vegetable shortening never sizzle in a hot pan because they are free
of moisture.
Don’t confuse unsalted butter with sweet cream butter. The sweet cream label refers to
the fact that they started the churning process with sweet instead of soured cream. North
American processors don’t use soured cream to make butter, but the French and several other
Europeans do as consumers prefer it. They let the cream sour slightly before churning it. The
difference in flavor between the two types of butter is slight—the European style has a slight
tanginess. No one knows why we still retain the outdated term sweet cream butter, but it has
nothing to do with its salt content.
Butter blends and dairy spreads are a combination of butter and vegetable oils. Mixing oil
in butter reduces the price since oil is far cheaper than butter, but it also reduces the cholesterol
while maintaining some butter flavor. Don’t be fooled—total fat and calories remain about the
same. In low-fat spreads, water replaces some of butter’s fat, reducing not only fat but calories,
cholesterol and flavor.
TASTINGS Blend your own cream
If you have heavy whipping cream and any type of milk in your refrigerator, you
can make any of the in-between creams, such as light cream or half-and-half. Use
your high school algebra to figure out the proportions of each you need to arrive
at a cream with a certain amount of fat content. The amount of fat in the milk and
heavy creamappears on the containers.
Other uncultured milk products
Products
% fat
Remarks
Heavy (whipping)
cream
min. 36%
Whips to highest volume with ease, firmest, holds foam best. Avoid ultra-
pasteurized that doesn’t whip as well.
Whipping cream
30-36%
18-30%
10.5-18%
(
light)
Light cream
Doesn’t whip well. Used for toppings, soups, cereals, coffee. Not
generally available.
Half-and-half
Ice cream
Most popular for coffee, cereal, dessert toppings, cooking.
See Dessert chapter for useful information, interesting facts.
Highly
variable
Clotted cream
55-65%
British invention, not much used in America. Very heavy cream heated
slowly for several hours, then chilled slowly. Almost like eating butter.
Margarine
Margarine is not a dairy product but since so many people substitute margarine for butter,
this is a good place for its discussion.
A food scientist in France, H. Mège-Mouriès, developed margarine in 1869 as a
substitute for butter in case of unexpected dairy shortage. He produced it by churning together
high-quality beef fat, called suet, and milk, but production was limited because of shortages of
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