The Omnomnomicon

Crème fraîche and clotted cream

3 min read

It’s the gent’s birthday tomorrow, and in his honour, we’re planning a tea party. Among the items requested was clotted cream, which currently goes for 5, and what’s more, I can never pass up the opportunity to turn milk into something more interesting.

The first attempt, modified from the Culture Cheese Mag recipe above to take advantage of the Instant Pot’s yogurt incubation setting, turned out quite nicely for what it actually is, but the problem is that it ends up tasting and acting like crème fraîche, not clotted cream. Clotted cream doubtlessly traditionally has incidental microorganism-based fermentation going on, but the thing that it’s known for is a rich, thick texture somewhere between stiffly whipped cream and whipped butter (not like the viscous, runny stuff that recipe makes) and a freshly sweet flavour, again, between whipped cream and unsalted butter.

Some further reading (one, two, three) turned up the realization that all that is truly needed is cream, warmth, and time — which is the method below that was actually preferred and used going forward.

Details

  • Yield: clotted cream from 1 L cream (about 1 jar)
  • Total time: about 12 hours
    • Active: 5 minutes
    • Passive: 12 hours (Instant Pot Keep Warm, unattended overnight) + chilling

Equipment

  • Instant Pot (with a Yogurt / Keep Warm setting)

Ingredients

Attempt 1 — Instant Pot yogurt setting (result was closer to crème fraîche)

  • 1 L (4-¼ cups) whipping cream
  • 125 mL (½ cup) buttermilk (with active bacterial culture)

Preferred method — Instant Pot Keep Warm

  • 1 L (4-¼ cups) whipping cream

Method

Attempt 1 — Instant Pot yogurt setting (result was closer to crème fraîche)

  1. Pour the whipping cream and buttermilk into the stainless steel liner of the Instant Pot.
  2. Press the Yogurt button, then press Adjust until Low is highlighted, then seal the pot.
  3. Let incubate overnight.
  4. Put the steel liner into a gentle water bath and hold at close to 82°C (180°F) for about 90 minutes, until the top layer has visibly thickened and is starting to pull from the edges. (That happens to be the pasteurization temperature, but it’s unclear whether the original recipe had that in mind.)
  5. Let chill, undisturbed, in the fridge for a few hours.
  6. When thoroughly chilled, carefully scoop the thickened layer from on top of the whey-like liquid into a separate container for storage in the fridge.

Preferred method — Instant Pot Keep Warm

  1. Pour the whipping cream into the stainless steel liner of the Instant Pot.
  2. Press the Keep Warm button (56–74°C / 133–165°F range) and set the time — about 12 hours, overnight.
  3. In the morning, remove the Instant Pot liner, disturbing it as little as possible, and let it chill in the fridge.
  4. Carefully skim/lift the chilled, thickened cream from the top and put into a jar for storage in the fridge.
  5. Reserve the remaining skimmed milk for another use.

Notes

The first attempt’s result is a legitimate crème fraîche, not a failure — just not what was wanted for this occasion. Its distinguishing texture from true clotted cream: crème fraîche is viscous/runny, where clotted cream sits somewhere between stiffly whipped cream and whipped butter.

Sources

Caldwell, Gianaclis. “DIY: Clotted Cream.” culture: the word on cheese, 4 April 2016, culturecheesemag.com/diy/clotted-cream — starting point only; the method actually used above came from further reading once this one turned out closer to crème fraîche than clotted cream.

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