How do you make clotted cream?

Clotted cream always tastes best when it’s made using fresh cow’s milk which has been left to stand to cool for several hours, until the cream has risen to the surface. Straight afterwards, it would have been heated in a water bath then cooled very slowly. The ‘clots’ which formed on the surface would be skimmed off using a device known as a reamer, making the clotted cream we all know and love.

Nowadays though, there are two different methods used for making clotted cream. One of them, the Float Cream technique, sees a layer of double cream ‘scalded’ on top of milk which has been heated in trays using either steam or very hot water. Once the liquids have been heated up for an hour, they are cooled very slowly – for about half a day – before the cream is separated and packaged up.

The second method, known as the Scald Cream technique, is quite distinct from the first. The milk layer is removed from the first stage of the production process and the layer of cream used all contains a minimum fat level. Heating of the cream is carried out in a similar manner to the first method, but it takes place at a lower temperature and it is chilled before packaging.

Clotted cream manufacturing throughout the south-west is mainly a cottage industry, which sees local farmers and dairies getting heavily involved in the production process. This is why clotted cream is such an important thing to us here at Kelly’s – we want to make sure our ice cream is as Cornish as you can get!

9th April, 2012

Tags: clotted cream