What is the real cream used in coffee?

[villageidiot]

A very long time ago, I remember people using "real cream" in their coffee. Several years ago after staying at a 5 star hotel, "real cream" was brought to the table for our coffee. It was unbelievably better than any kind of creamer, dry or liquid, that I had been using. When I returned home, I tried to find cream at our groceries. No one had it. There was half and half, but not any kind of cream. I have checked occasionally since then, with no luck. (I am trying to stop using powdered coffee creamer.)

BUT, today while in the store, I found these:
whipping cream
heavy cream
light cream
heavy whipping cream

Confused, I came home with only fat free half and half. :-(

I read the posts here regarding the difference between whipping, heavy, light, cream, and understand that.

My question is this: do any of you know which is the kind of cream that was used in coffee before all of the "fancy" liquid and powdered creamers came along?

Thanks a lot!!!

[CrazyOne]

It's often difficult (at least around here, SW PA) to find a heavy cream without stabilizers. Also difficult to find non-ultra pasteurized of any of these things. Even just seeing anything labeled as heavy cream alone (not whipping) is unusual. Worth getting IMO, assuming, as I would expect, that it does not have the stabilizers, but it's probably too heavy for your coffee. Light cream is not common here, a couple of small local dairies do make it but most stores don't carry such things. Can be somewhat more common in other parts of the country (New England seems like).

I don't think the heavy cream (as heavy as the heavy whipping cream, that is) was particularly common in coffee, though. More typical would have been light cream. Also these terms can vary somewhat in definition. The most widely available and used now though is likely to be half and half.

The place that served you "real cream" possibly served you light cream as opposed to half and half, or possibly served you real half and half while insinuating that most places serve only non-dairy fake stuff. ;-) (Fake stuff still does get served in restaurants, though, at least sometimes. We have breakfast occasionally at a nearby diner, and they go to trouble of serving fantastic omelets without pre-beaten eggs, but they only serve non-dairy creamer. Wacky. We eat there anyway. Bring a carton of half and half. ;-)

Substitute half and half for recipes calling for milk; that is fun. We never have milk but always have half and half in the fridge.

[villageidiot]

Thanks to all of you. Yes, I was horrified when I got home and found the "other ingredients" in the Fat Free Half and Half. I agree, it is an oxymoron. But, the label says 0 fat, and in the ingredients it uses skim milk, and next to the cream is an asterisk which says something like a very small amt of fat.
After seeing all of the other items, i grabbed the Land O'Lakes fat free half and half, figuring it must be good, since it was Land O' Lakes. I cannot believe that I did not read the label. I guess I was just so tired and in too much pain from my doctor visit. It was the last item that I got/grabbed.

You will all be delighted that the village idiot tried the fat free half and half for you and it is HORRIBLE!!!! (Thanks for defending me Hank! :-) Even if I did not feel attacked by anyone)

I am trying to remove the powdered coffeemate from my diet. As on another post, I got used to the
powdered stuff when working. I cannot stand the sweetness of flavored creamers to drink in my morning coffee. I will use it occasionally if I want something sweet in the evening.

So, from all of your advice, I will look for a small box of heavy cream, and a small box of light cream, next time I can find someone to go shopping for me. Can't say that I want cream with that much fat everyday in my coffee, so will also try Half and Half.

Thanks so much for your help.
Da Village Idiot

[ZenSojourner]

My dad used cream which I assume is the same as heavy cream until the dairy stopped doing home delivery sometime in the late 60s. Then he switched to condensed milk. When his percolator finally died, he first switched to half and half and then to milk and then stopped using cream altogether. I assume this was because (as he complained so bitterly and at great length, one of the few complaints the man was ever known to make) that coffee from a Mr. Coffee was already a weak watery substance that hardly deserved to be called coffee.

This was the man who used to take the sludge at the bottom of the percolator, pour it into a cup in the fridge, and then add it to the fresh pot of coffee in the morning. Like turbo-charging I would guess. So probably Mr. Coffee did seem weak and watery to him.

[villageidiot]

LOL Zen!!!! Sounds just like my daddy!!!! He swore for years that Mr. Coffee was horrible. Then I would hear about how he and his WW2 buddies would put coffee grounds into a sock, and stick the sock in boiling water. Yummy. :-) His percolator died about 10 yrs ago, and all he had on hand were 2 Mr. Coffees that he had gotten for Christmas and birthday. He claimed for about a month, always repeating his sock story. Then his frugal side took over, and he wouldn't spend the money on a percolator. About 2 yrs into his use of Mr. Coffee, I asked if he had finally gotten used to it, and his reply was, "I guess, but the coffee we made with the sock in the military was still better than this."

[ZenSojourner]

That DOES sound like my dad, LOL! He also wouldn't splurge for a new percolator (well they got awfully hard to find after Mr. Coffee came along anyway). I think he did finally get used to it, but it was never really the same for him.

That generation really WAS the Greatest Generation. I don't think we realize yet how badly we are going to miss them. . . .

[c oliver]

Cream and its sisters last much longer than milk.

[villageidiot]

Great to know about the long expiration time c oliver. Thanks.

So, I guess it is light cream, for my first "real" coffee cream test.

BTW.................. that dang Fat Free Half and Half just completely ruined my cup of tomato soup. grrrr. AND, tried it with my cats. 2 of them looked at me like, "are you kidding???". The other one who will eat anything (including cabbage!), had a few "sips" and left it.

Don't think I will ruin any more of my food with it. Perhaps my neighbor can take it to work and put it in their coffee break room fridge.

I guess my summary would be to NEVER buy FAT FREE Half and Half. Maybe it will unclog my kitchen sink! :-D

[cutipie721]

I'm glad you figured it out :-)

Maybe you can try getting organic ones or those from small farms, the flavor is so much better than the big brand name stuff. In my area, a quart of organic h&h costs $2.69. I only use maybe 2 tbsp of it everyday, one box is good for 3 weeks. It's worth indulging in, and 2 tbsps of cream everyday is not going to kill you.

[Rasam]

I agree that "Fat Free" H&H is just ..... a contradiction in terms? Who dreamed it up and why?

But, I think people get confused between "pasteurized" and "homogenized".

Pasteurization is a process, involving heating, to kill nasty bacteria.

Homogenization is the process to make milk products easy to transport and store, and involve taking fat out of milk, putting stabilizers etc in, putting fat back in some milk products etc etc.
Homogenization is why it is almost impossible to make cream and butter at home - the milk just doesn't separate!

[Nyleve]

Homogenization: http://www.foodscience.uoguelph.ca/da...

Yes, it is possible that some processors are adding stabilizers to milk, but homogenization, as a process, is nothing but a mechanicall method of making the fat globules in milk smaller so that they don't separate out easily. To make lower fat and nonfat milk, they do remove all the fat and then put it back in according to a percentage before homogenizing the milk.

[Rasam]

Yes, that's what I meant to convey: the point of making the fat globules less easy to separate out, is to facilitate transport and storage (you don't want your milk or cream inadvertently getting churned en route in the truck)

People seem to get the two terms mixed up (I heard on NPR just today about someone saying they got sick from the unhomogenized milk) :)
No, that would be from the unpasteurized milk ......

I tried to make butter at home a few years back and gave up. Around here, every brand of milk and cream is marked "homogenized", even those from the artisanal local dairies, so I've never tried again.

[LauraGrace]

My students make butter every Thanksgiving with heavy cream and it works just fine! I wonder what made yours not work?

[Rasam]

I don't know - we just shook and shook and shook the bottle for more than an hour, and .... ?

I haven't tried again.

How do your students make it?

My final goal is to make cultured butter.

[LauraGrace]

My students put heavy whipping cream into little jars (babyfood jars just because they're easy to get ahold of and small) and shake until it starts to get grainy, then shake gently until it forms a solid lump -- too much shaking will mix the butter back in with the buttermilk and it makes a weird, runny, butter-cream hybrid. After the "lump" of butter forms, they pour off the buttermilk and voila! Butter. Only takes... 10-15 minutes. But it MUST be heavy whipping cream or it won't work.

I came across this post on cultured butter and have been wanting to do it ever since:

http://www.lastnightsdinner.net/2009/...

[Rasam]

And you just bought the regular heavy whipping cream from a grocery store, which said "homogenized"? Wow! I wish I had got those results.

I must try again. Maybe we shook it too long? I don't know, but this weekend I will try again .....

Have you tried making larger quantities in a food processor with a whisk attachment?

[LauraGrace]

Yup, regular heavy whipping cream from a regular grocery store. You do really have to be careful once you reach the point where the cream starts to look grainy -- a bit more finesse is required from that point because you're almost there.

I've only ever used a churn or the shaking method, but I know many people who have made butter with a food processor, stand mixer, or beaters.

[Rasam]

OK thanks and will report if I get to try this soon.

[decolady]

I prefer half & half. The real thing! IMO heavy cream is too greasy for coffee. There used to be a product called light cream that was indeed between half & half and whole milk. I haven't seen that in years. But we grew up using half & half, so that is what tastes right to me.

[Will Owen]

I remember when "Coffee Cream" was a separate product, somewhere between whole milk and half-and-half. My mom kept some for her coffee, and if we were REALLY good and she was in the mood, we'd get some on our cereal.

I disagree with the suggestion to use heavy cream. It leaves what to me is an annoying slick of fat on the surface. On the other hand ANYTHING is better than so-called Fat Free H&H...

[GraydonCarter]

Right. The restaurant probably served light cream, or coffee cream.

When I was on the Atkins diet I used Heavy Cream extensively because it has such a low carb ratio (e.g., high fat). When I asked, my local Starbucks had a carton in their fridge.

[Hank Hanover]

Hey! Leave the villageidiot alone. ugh...maybe that didn't come out right. I'm sure he/she is sorry for ever mentioning using the stuff (fat free half & half).

I just thought of something that could be used for a sweetener and a creamer... sweetened condensed milk. I would think that would be great.

Of course, you could do what I saw a very nice restaurant in a hotel do. Send out a tray of additives with the coffee. There was whipped cream, chopped chocolate, cinnamon sugar and sugar.

[Popkin]

In regards to using sweetened condensed milk....... it IS very tasty! Gives something reminiscent of a caramelized flavour, very very nice :)

[Hank Hanover]

You could add any number of flavoring s to sweetened condensed milk, too.

Chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla, hazelnut flavoring, mint perhaps, even that caramel flavoring.

Of course this is coming from the guy that drinks Folgers black.

[Veggo]

Gong! For too many years, morning coffee in Mexico was Nescafe with sweetened condensed milk. Nasty.

[CocoDan]

And, the answer to the question is (drumroll please), light cream. My wife always asks when we've had the good fortune to stay in some of the higher end hotels and resorts, and the answer has always been, light cream. I'm sure there will be 50 + other opinions.
Enjoy,
CocoDan

[MacTAC]

Have to agree...

[greygarious]

And they would be wrong. You are correct, it's light cream and I am shocked that it took so many posts before the right answer appeared. Half&half is the other common "cream" used in coffee. I buy whichever one has the farthest expiration date. By the way, in a pinch, evaporated milk (not to be confused with sweetened condensed) is a decent sub for half&half in coffee.

[Nyleve]

In Canada they sell half and half, 10% cream, 18% cream and whipping cream. For coffee, I'd use any except the whipping cream. Most people would use half and half or 10%. 18% is for when you're feeling rich.

Fat free half and half is ridiculous.

[Caroline1]

Fat free half and half is really just another breed of artificial creamer. Before the invention of "coffee creamers" (Creamora and the like) the standard offered in most restaurants was what is today labeled as "whipping cream." The liquid kind, not the pre-whipped kind. It's also sometimes labeled as "heavy cream." On request, restaurants used to provide whole milk, or for anyone who wanted half and half, that's what they got, a mixture of half whole milk and half heavy cream.

In the home, many people used evaporated milk in their coffee. It was also available on request in many restaurants. It gives a sweeter taste than cream. But home users also used cream and//or milk. And if you go back far enough, or go country enough to find people who used pasteurized but not homogenized milk, the cream would float to the top. I grew up on raw milk fresh from the dairy so the adults in my family would just pour cream off the top of the milk into their morning coffee.

Hope you find the flavor you're looking for. Good luck!

[c oliver]

C1, remember the teeny, tiny little "bottles" of cream at restaurants? Just enough for one cup of coffee. My parents both drank their coffee black so my brother and I would drink those little things. Mmmm. When I see that gacky French vanilla stuff nowadays...well, just yuck.

[bon oeuf]

My favorite is regular half and half. Full cream is delicious but for everyday I actually prefer the half and half because it gives the coffee nice smoothness without being too heavy or oily.

I agree with the others, deep six the fat-free.

Let us know how you do.

[Tripeler]

Fat free half-and-half sounds positively ghastly!
Just get some heavy cream for whipping, should be about 42%. Call it good.

[Kelli2006]

Fat free half-and-half is an oxymoron because half-&-half is half milk and half cream, neither of which are fat free. That said my preferred coffee creamer is non ultra pasteurized half and half.

The power of marketing and the absence of logic is the reason can convince Americans to buy anything.

[greygarious]

Heavy cream and whipping cream are too fatty for coffee. You may as well plop in a pat of butter.

[c oliver]

And your point is :)

[DiningDiva]

:-D

[janniecooks]

Fat free half and half is an ersatz food product to be avoided. Powdered and "fancy" liquid creamers are also ersatz foods, skip them.

Back in the day before homogenization one could actually purchase whole milk where the cream rose to the top of the bottle. One would scoop off the cream and use that for any application that called for cream. It wasn't all that long ago that milk was delivered to homes and it wasn't homogenized, and one could actually purchase it in grocery stores. Sadly, homogenization has taken over and it is extremely rare to find unhomogenized milk.

[ZenSojourner]

Young's Jersey Dairy in Yellow Springs, Ohio, is one of 3 dairies in the country licensed to sell raw unhomogenized milk. And that's JERSEY milk, with over 5% butter fat.

YUM!

[Vetter]

We've got a raw jersey dairy in my county, too. BEST STUFF EVER. It's my favorite thing for coffee, bar none, but it's expensive and makes (twists my arm, you see) me drink lots of sweet, milky coffee. The flavor is superlative.

We also have non-homogenized, pasteurized local dairy. Dang, we are spoiled!

[coll]

Fat free half and half is full of all kinds of extra ingredients, I would avoid it. The reason cream tastes so good is because of the FAT!

What you want is Heavy Cream, and it should have listed on the label the percent of butterfat. 36% is standard, but if you can find 40% or more you will be very happy. And if you can find (like at Whole Foods) pastuerized rather than ultrapastuerized, there is a world of difference there too. Also you can get the glass bottles of milk with the cream on top, if you really want to do it the old way, and scoop it off. There's just enough for a cup of coffee.

[LauraGrace]

Agreed! Just do be sure to check that there aren't any stabilizers or thickeners. The ingredients list should not include carageenan or guar gum or anything like that.

[Hank Hanover]

Any of those will work. I would use the pasturized cream in a small milk carton.

What is with the fat free half and half? Is it really half and half without fat?

If you want it to be even more luxurious add some vanilla to the cream.

If you take sugar, you could even use those whipped cream spray cans. You know... the ones you used to hold up to your mouth and spray it in when your mother wasn't looking.

[LauraGrace]

Unfortunately the spray-can whipped cream often has stabilizers and can sometimes separate when it melts, leaving a very unappetizing slick of -- well, butter, basically -- on top of the coffee. It's happened to me! ;)

I agree, fat free "half and half" is completely horrifying, as are non-dairy and powdered creamers. Just read the ingredients -- they're about as closely related to real cream as a Twinkie is to my great-aunt's sponge cake.