Cornwall, Cornish Clotted Cream

Cornish Clotted Cream is nectar. It is possible to make your own Cornwall clotted cream, but I think that you will find it easier to buy it rather than make it!

The leading Cornish Clotted Cream company in Cornwall is Rodda who do sell through most UK supermarkets. They also sell by post, but, I think, only in the UK.

For the USA, I have come across a web site for sales of Cornish Clotted Cream in the USA. If you want to avoid making your own, you could contact them .

However I have had several dozen requests for the recipe, so decided to put this one out for the world to try. Over the last few years I have had many e-mails from people that have tried (or were thinking of trying) to make clotted cream. Ben and Ellen Arnold in California succeeded in making a "quite good" clotted cream, so I can commend their approach to you

Cornish clotted cream is heat-treated high butterfat cows' milk cream. Milk is warmed to separate the cream. The cream must have a minimum butterfat content of 55%. The cream is then scalded to 70 to 80º C, but not allowed to boil, for a minimum of one hour during which time a thick crust forms. The product is then cooled to a maximum temperature of 5º C during which time the crust hardens and the underside cream thickens.

A high level of carotene is also found in the grass in Cornwall which contributes to the distinctive colour of Cornish clotted cream.

How to make the real thing

You need full cream milk, fresh from the cow. Pour it into a shallow pan, and leave it to stand for about 12 hours for the cream to rise to the surface. Now heat the milk very slowly, until the surface begins to wrinkle: on no account allow the milk to boil- the more slowly the heating is done, the better the result. About one hours gentle heating is what is required. Transfer the pan to a cool place and leave overnight. In the morning the clotted cream can be spooned off the surface. (if you cannot get creamy enough milk, you can experiment by adding extra runny cream to the milk to beef up its cream content)

 

The Sierra Nevada alternative

For those of you without access to a cow, try Ben & Ellen Arnold's alternative

Extra heavy whipping cream heated to 170 F  for 1 1/2 hours in a double boiler makes a quite good product (at least to those who really don't know any better!.)

They had previously tried mixing one quart of half and half with one pint of whipping cream, but found this did not make as good a clotted cream

Clotted Cream is rich and decadent. Clotted cream has all the usual uses of whipped cream, but is much thicker and tastier. The traditional farmhouse, unpasturised clotted cream can still be found, but the bureaucrats are gradually winkling them out. I really do not know why this country enforces mindless regulations with such mindless zeal. If you ever find the original farm cream, then buy, buy, buy.

Otherwise you will find that most grocery shops, even the supermarkets, sell a perfectly adequate clotted cream by the tub in the dairy section.

Apart from dolloping it on scones that have been spread with butter and jam, it can also be spread on toasted Cornish saffron bread.

Another local variant is "thunder and lightening", take a soft bap, spoon on the clotted cream, then trickle black treacle over it. Quite an indulgence this one!

You can also use it to make a brulee type pudding. Coat the top of your dessert with clotted cream, sprinkle a layer of sugar on the surface of the cream, and caramelise under a hot grill or using a blow torch

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