[dropcap1]Q. [/dropcap1]What's the difference between whipping cream and heavy cream? Seems to me that a lot of recipes use the two terms interchangeably. And as long as I'm asking, what do you do with half-and-half?
[dropcap1]A. [/dropcap1]All of these are products in the milk line, differing only in their percentage of milkfat (formerly "butterfat," a term no longer in vogue because often butter isn't a factor). The "whipping" designation can be applied to any cream above about 20 percent milkfat.
The richest cream in daily retail commerce is heavy cream, also known as heavy whipping cream and (less often) double cream. Its percentage of milk fat is usually in the 30s, but sometimes as high as the 40s. This is the kind chefs like to cook with.
Next richest cream is just-plain-whipping cream, averaging 24 to 30 percent milkfat. You can cook with it or whip it. Both this and the above have a way of breaking if you either cook them or whip them too long.
Next is light cream, also known as coffee cream and single cream. For some reason, this product has nearly disappeared from markets in the New Orleans area, although it's still popular in the Northeast and Midwest. It has between 18 and 24 percent milkfat.
It's likely that what happened to light cream is that preferences shifted to half-and-half. That's a blend of whole milk and light cream, with milkfat percentages in the teens. You can use it in coffee or cook with it. It's especially good for making fettuccine Alfredo, for example.
From here we skip down to whole milk, which is milk as it more or less comes straight from the cow with nothing removed. This winds up with about three and a quarter percent milkfat. The other categories of milk are denoted by their milkfat percentages.
I'd better say something about buttermilk. There is no butter or milkfat to speak of in buttermilk, which is what's left over when the milkfat is removed. So, counterintuitively, buttermilk is as low in milkfat as skim milk.
Written by Tom Fitzmorris August 25, 2014 10:01 in
