Sat. Morning with James martin

[mark111757 Profile]

Did anyone watch last Saturdays 11/9 when they played the clip from when he toured the States.. He was in Texas doing blueberry pancakes and made a comment on how cream in this country is rubbish. Well he is 110% on the money. I think 38% milkfat is about the best you are going to get. Approached a couple of big milk producers, no luck. Tried micro dairies, got the deer in the deer in the head lights look..not encouraging at all.

I will give him credit for saying what needed to be said

[Renee Profile]

I really like James Martin. He is a straight-talking Yorkshire man Mark!

I bought double cream this morning and it is 48g per 100ml. My brain isn't working, so I can't work out the percentage!

[Sakkarin Profile]

It's 48%, Renee! That's the beauty of the "per 100g/ml" figures, you can instantly work out how much of anything is in there. A couple of examples, the protein amount in flour which gives an indication of its strength for breadmaking, and also anything that you want to know how much sugar there is in it. If it says "13g in every 100g sugar" it means it's 13% sugar.

[jeral Profile]

mark111757, do you know why they don't make thick or extra thick cream in the US? Is it the breed of cows or some sort of statutory regulation?

I imagine in the UK it might be that fat is not now considered "a good thing" so skimmed milk is popular, i.e. they probably use the fat from the skimmed milk and add it into a dedicated cream product, like extra thick at 50%. Maybe skimmed milk hasn't caught on in the US? Or perhaps residual whey has a lower market value?

Just wondering why - or why not - really.

[Renee Profile]

Thanks so much for the explanation Sakkarin!

Regarding milk, I can remember staying with relatives in Canada many years ago and they bought 2% milk, so they must have been aware of the fat content back then.

[mark111757 Profile]

Renee

It might Aldo be known as semi skim milk. A real difference from the 4-5 in full fat milk.

Jeral

Why it isn't more available, I don't know. There have been many in the British cooking invasion that have helped to make it popular....st. Delia, king of stylee, gordo, hf-w, hestie, mpw, I am sure there are others. Might be laziness or stupidity on the milk peoples part. Is the term double cream copy written???

One thing I did find here in the States in manufacturing cream at 40%. Don't know how pure that is or how much chemicals are pumped into it. The I saw it was around the holidays. To me someone is missing out on a great revenue stream.

[Renee Profile]

I've just checked my semi-skimmed milk Mark and the fat content is 1.7g per 100ml.

[Pommes Profile]

France only offers rubbish cream too, which will sometimes whip if you keep it in the fridge for several days, I believe. Many moons ago I bought a cream making attachment for my Kenwood chef. With this, I can make single or double cream, with full fat or semi skimmed milk. For single cream I use 1/2 fat (unsalted butter) to milk. For double cream, I use equal fat to milk, but made a day in advance if I want to whip it.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

I've just checked my semi-skimmed milk Mark and the fat content is 1.7g per 100ml

These days, most commercially available milk is standardised. Milk is a natural product, it's composition varies a bit. In the name of consistency, it is skimmed and recombined at certain fat contents. 'Whole milk' is about 3½% fat, semi skimmed is half that - 1.7%, skimmed is about 0.3% and of course these days there's 1% too.

What comes out of the cow is usually more than 3.5%, so 'whole milk' is no more whole than 'wholemeal flour' is whole. There's more money made by taking the fat off and selling it for more money than milk, whilst marketing the residue as a healthy alternative. Coincidence I'm sure...