Creme de la creme

October 3, 2011 7:28 AM

Where in the world, apart from the UK, can I get the equivalent of double cream? Essential features inside.

These are, for me, the essential features of the cream:

1. It is fresh, not long-life, UHT or otherwise treated to extend shelf-life.
2. It has a fat content of approximately 50%.
3. It has no additives, e.g. carageen.
4. It is a pouring cream, not clotted, whipped etc.

The closest I've found so far in Europe is fresh Austrian Schlagobers, i.e. cream intended for whipping, but its fat content is only 36%. That seems to be the limit for Schlagobers. Google searching suggests that US "heavy cream" is in the region of 30-40% fat, up to 42%.

I like double cream in my coffee. I have the chance to move to another country for a little while, and this matter of the cream is guiding my choice, believe it or not.

posted by londongeezer to Food & Drink (14 answers total)

Swedish vispgrädde (whipping cream) is pourable with, typically, a 40% fat content, although my British palate never found it as good as British cream - Swedish coffee is generally excellent, on the other hand!
posted by misteraitch at 7:41 AM on October 3, 2011

Best answer: King Island cream in Australia at a fat content of 53%. Don't know how extensively it's available but when I lived in Oz most supermarkets had it.
posted by Logophiliac at 7:59 AM on October 3, 2011 [2 favorites]

Sorry, should have added that KI trades heavily on its clean and green image. Definitely not UHT-treated. However KI cream "holds its shape well", as the website says.
posted by Logophiliac at 8:01 AM on October 3, 2011

This is probably very naive, but have you slowly tried adding lard to single cream under low heat and mixing speed to get the 50% fat content? If it doesn't mix well, you could either add lecithin (it sounds like you're against this) or try to recreate the homogenization process at home, possibly by forcing the heated mixture through a french press with a finer mesh/cheesecloth layer over it. Then chill and hope your fat doesn't separate.
posted by hanoixan at 8:13 AM on October 3, 2011

You can get "Crème double de la Gruyère" in Switzerland, best served with meringue but it works in coffee as well.
posted by cl3m at 8:16 AM on October 3, 2011

FYI, as someone who puts double cream in her coffee at home and uses heavy cream in coffee in the US, I can tell you the two are virtually indistinguishable. Heavy cream has a slightly silty after-texture.
posted by DarlingBri at 8:51 AM on October 3, 2011

If you can reduce coffee with double cream to the status of "special treat", you can buy (very) expensive imported double cream in the Netherlands, and probably in other countries with enough of a British expat population to support specialised import shops. For instance, Absolutely British in Amstelveen (on the outskirts of Amsterdam) will sell you a 170g pot for an eyewatering €6.90.

I regret the lack of it as a cooking ingredient, personally. It's amazing how many British recipes, both savoury and sweet, call for it. We should all be the size of houses.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 8:53 AM on October 3, 2011

Oh here, look: double cream and many regional variations.
posted by DarlingBri at 8:53 AM on October 3, 2011

Best answer: Various cream products are homogenized to varying degrees, and you will have to shop around to find those kinds that still separate (some don't, which makes me anyway suspect some foul play in the additives department), meaning that the fatter content floats up after a period of being left alone. Scoop that off for your coffee. This method works well for most Swedish vispgrädde, and some kinds of German Schlagsahne.

Other strategy: make stronger coffee, and use more cream. Some of the water in the cream dilutes the coffee to the necessary strength, the rest acts as - double cream.




[(Swedish coffee is not generally excellent, sorry)]
posted by Namlit at 9:16 AM on October 3, 2011

They sell it at Whole Foods in Washington, DC, at least I have seen it, next to the Devonshire clotted cream.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 9:23 AM on October 3, 2011

You can find double cream in in any big, cosmopolitan city in Western Europe, where its imported by British shops. It's expensive compared to the cost in the UK, but if you're only using it in coffee then the cost is going to be a rounding error compared to the other costs of moving countries for a few months.
posted by caek at 9:25 AM on October 3, 2011

I can confirm hanoxian's suggestion that you can mix other fats with whipping cream. I've never tried it at high quantities, but you can make some fantastic, offbeat whipped creams by mixing in some argan, sesame, or pumpkin seed oil. For these oils, no emulsifier beyond that already in the cream was needed -- I just poured it in and let my kitchen aid do the mixing. I also tried red palm oil which is not only solid at room temperature but also crystallizes. When I mixed it without lecithin, individual crystals which melted endothermically were detectable on the tongue; when I used lecithin, they were not.

Instead of lard, I might try butter as it is the actual fat that is already present in double cream.
posted by novalis_dt at 11:18 AM on October 3, 2011

In the UK some time ago, I was served cream that was thick enough to stand a spoon in, pourable, but only just. And not hyper-pasteurized. I've not had it anywhere else, and I understand your devotion. But I will say that it doesn't take long to retrain one's taste buds, and that while you wont have that lovely cream, there will be other unique foods in any new country.
posted by theora55 at 3:11 PM on October 3, 2011

Best answer: You can make it yourself if you can get non-homogenized milk (which is available where I live in the SF Bay Area). Pour milk in a flat pan, let the cream rise to the top. Single cream you skim the milk after 12 hours, double cream after 24.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:47 PM on October 3, 2011