On Food and Cooking

(Barry) #1

protein, cream is less likely to curdle. And
thanks to its concentration of fat globules, it
can be inflated into whipped cream: a far
more substantial and stable foam than milk
alone can make.
Though it has certainly been appreciated
since the beginning of dairying, cream spoils
faster than the butter that could be made from
it, and so it played a minor role in all but
farmhouse kitchens until fairly recently. By
the 17th century, French and English cooks
were frothing cream into imitation snow; the
English exploited its layering nature to pile
cream skins in the form of a cabbage, and
used long, gentle heating to produce solid,
nutty “clouted” cream. Cream’s heyday
arrived in the 18th century, when it went into
cakes, puddings, and such savory dishes as
fricassees, stews, and boiled vegetables, and
became popular in frozen form as ice cream.
The popularity of cream declined in the 20th
century with the nutritional condemnation of

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