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Whipped cream problem:


Darienne

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Last night we had one of our dinner=dessert events, a very simple one, strawberry shortcake, more or less. The problem was the whipping cream...it simply wouldn't do its thing.

OK. the cream is from Weber which is a good dairy, its expiration date is March 29. The bowl and beaters...my brand new KA handmixer...were in the freezer. The ambient temperature was probably about 80 F and the humidity was probably about 20 %or lower. It tried to whip, but it was taking forever, the guests were assembled, etc.

I thought...well, perhaps the bowl was not scrupulously clean. I took a second bowl, scalded it, cooled it, put it into a bowl of water and ice cubes, all the good stuff, and began again. No difference. We used half-whipped cream. And sour cream and yogurt.

Could it be the cream itself? What have I missed? 80 is not that hot and I've whipped cream at home in hotter kitchens and with 95% ...our summer-long humidity.

All input gratefully received. :wacko:

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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ok, it's a random thought but it's happened to me before. With a hand mixer if you don't put the beaters in the correct sides (usually one has a bar at the top and the other doesn't ) and they go on specific sides of the mixer. The mixer will run with them in either way but you don't get any volume if they're not in the right sides. As I said I had the same problem and couldn't figure out why my egg whites wouldn't whip.

Hope this helps,

Michelle

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Michelle,

I assume that you were dealing with Ultra-Pasteurized cream, possibly with some added preservatives. There is also the possibility that your dairy is now using the minimum butter-fat level permitted.

I have heard that Ultra-Pastuerized cream is difficult to whip, but when it finally is whipped, stays whipped forever.

I steer away from the product out of fear.

Tim

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Thanks to you all for the input.

Answers:

- yes, the beaters were in correctly. I checked.

- no, it was not ultra-pasteurized milk. Cream of Weber is a great dairy. And I beat their whipping cream with excellent results just two weeks ago so I don't think they have changed their formula. I am going to write to them.

- I tried first with the KA balloon whisk. It felt strange, in that there is only one whisk and I was used to two. Gave up and put in the regular beaters. No better.

We have been out all morning and right after lunch, I am going to attempt to beat the cream one last time with all new and spotlessly cleaned and freezer-cooled stuff. We shall see what we shall see.

Thanks again everybody. :wub:

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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Still no answer. DH was a witness to the controlled whipping session.

Everything was scrupulously clean and in the freezer at the start. New cream from the same quart. Used balloon whisk. It was much cooler today also. Low desert humidity.

As in the first two attempts, the cream began to thicken somewhat after a few minutes. Aha! I thought. This time it works. Wrong. :sad: It never got any thicker. Just a sort of a medium thick and that was it.

I phoned the market from which I got the cream and am to call back tomorrow. I might also just mail the company with my predicament and see what they say...or if they replace my defective/? cream.

Thanks for helping and listening. :wink:

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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In On Food and Cooking, Harold McGee says that for best whipping, the cream should not only be cold, but it should be "aged" in the refrigerator for 12 hours or more. That is, if the cream sat out and warmed up for a while and was chilled just before use, it wouldn't whip well. Maybe it sat out for a while in the car while you were shopping, and then you chilled it quickly and tried to whip it?

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In On Food and Cooking, Harold McGee says that for best whipping, the cream should not only be cold, but it should be "aged" in the refrigerator for 12 hours or more. That is, if the cream sat out and warmed up for a while and was chilled just before use, it wouldn't whip well. Maybe it sat out for a while in the car while you were shopping, and then you chilled it quickly and tried to whip it?

Can you see my face, how red it is? :sad: I forgot all about it. I actually left the cream out in the van overnight. That's from about 5 pm until some time the next day. Put it into the fridge and forgot all about it.

It was in the fridge for several hours before I tried to whip it, but I guess that the damage caused by however much heat there was in the van was too much.

Oooh, I am embarrassed. :shock: But hey! Life moves on.

I am indebted to you for your post. :wub: I received it before I made a total idiot of myself publicly.

(Talk about your learning experiences...)

Edited by Darienne (log)

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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while that certainly could have been the problem, i've made creme parisienne (chocolate whipped cream) by boiling the cream and adding chocolate, chilling over an ice bath to cool and whipping immediately...with no problems whatsoever (even though the directions say to chill overnight). i'm sure if the cream is lower fat, that will affect the whip-ability.

cleanliness of bowl and beaters has nothing to do with anything when it comes to cream. egg whites - definitely, cream - doesn't matter.

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I think if I learn one more thing today, my brain will burst for sure. :wacko: Not to mention my DH who said...'don't tell me that you actually told everyone what you did? :raz: '

So the half-whipped cream went back into the bottle and will do nicely for ganache or something else.

And I'll buy another bottle of Cream of Weber Whipping cream and see what happens, and then follow up on this thread.

Thanks for the additional information. I knew about egg whites and cleanliness and somehow thought it was true of whipping cream...which makes no sense when I think about it, because it is fat you are trying to avoid with whipping the egg whites.

And if Alanamoana could heat the cream and then cool it and beat it satisfactorily ...it means the mystery remains unsolved.

The cream I used is, of course, of a slightly lower fat content than the specialty heavy creams which the professional chefs use, but it has always worked before. Fascinating.

I cannot believe the sheer weight of the stuff I have learned since joining this Forum in August. After a lifetime of avoiding cooking as much as possible, I am almost drowning in a sea of information and new experiences.

Edited by Darienne (log)

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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This is the only whipped cream recipe that I use:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Extraordinary_Home...ed_Cream_Recipe

I once used a different one from a cookbook and it practically fell. I have never had a problem with this recipe, though!

Thanks for your input. Interesting link.

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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Just to complicate matters a bit more...

I know there can be seasonal variation with milk used for making froth for coffees. This is due to variances in fat, protein, and mineral concentrations. In your neck of the woods, they are likely to use grain feed during winter and then change to pasture feed in spring, leading to large variances in composition.

What you may have had is cream that had poorer properties for whipping than normal because of seasonal variances. Add to this the leaving in the car episode, which would accentuate the effect, and hence floppy whip.

Nick Reynolds, aka "nickrey"

"The Internet is full of false information." Plato
My eG Foodblog

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Just to complicate matters a bit more...

I know there can be seasonal variation with milk used for making froth for coffees. This is due to variances in fat, protein, and mineral concentrations. In your neck of the woods, they are likely to use grain feed during winter and then change to pasture feed in spring, leading to large variances in composition.

What you may have had is cream that had poorer properties for whipping than normal because of seasonal variances.  Add to this the leaving in the car episode, which would accentuate the effect, and hence floppy whip.

Thanks Nickrey, that is a new consideration for me. I must go and taste it straight and see how it stacks up to the usual taste as I recall it.

I just came up with another possibility.

This cream could have been inadvertently frozen before I received it on the truck, in the store cases.... That would do it. I had ordered this cream over a week ago and apparently the dairy shorted the order. Then it unexpectedly arrived to my confusion. Could there have been some problem of that nature. I know that you can't whip pre-frozen cream.

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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OK. Another tangent.

Lacking an ISI gas whipper and some gelatine, is there any other way that the situation could have been retrieved?

Or, to put it another way, how could one 'whip' cream that doesn't want to whip?

Could one mix in a little beaten egg-white? What could one do to 'stabilise' the foam with things that might be to hand?

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch ... you must first invent the universe." - Carl Sagan

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OK. Another tangent.

Lacking an ISI gas whipper and some gelatine, is there any other way that the situation could have been retrieved?

Or, to put it another way, how could one 'whip' cream that doesn't want to whip? 

Could one mix in a little beaten egg-white? What could one do to 'stabilise' the foam with things that might be to hand?

If you can use soy lecithin or similar to create foams in other things, why not to "foam" cream?

Nick Reynolds, aka "nickrey"

"The Internet is full of false information." Plato
My eG Foodblog

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OK. Another tangent.

Lacking an ISI gas whipper and some gelatine, is there any other way that the situation could have been retrieved?

Or, to put it another way, how could one 'whip' cream that doesn't want to whip? 

Could one mix in a little beaten egg-white? What could one do to 'stabilise' the foam with things that might be to hand?

I am no expert, but I thought that gelatine was simply a stabilizer and not to be used until the cream was already whipped.

I don't have an ISI gas whipper although I shall begin to think about getting one. Thanks for the help.

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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Please note that your qoute from on food and cooking says "for best results", not for, "if you don't do this it won't work at all".

The cream didn't have enough butterfat. end of discussion. Stop talking about putting the beaters in correctly, or using foaming agents or a cream siphon or aging and temperature changes. I can make whip cream for you with a spatula, mind you it would take much longer than with a whisk and I would have to keep refrigerating it, but still it is possible.

What aerates the cream is the proteins and what makes it happen is the fat. After agitating the cream enough the proteins get pushed apart and the fat starts to find partner molecules to buddy up with. Once enough fat has come together in thousands of larger particle pieces they are able to lock air within the fat globules. the proteins help the fat sit tight long enough for this to happen. Eventually enough air has been incoprorated that it is a homogenous mix and the air can be distributed evenly through the cream giving you whipped cream.

there is not enough fat, the company botched the batch, go get some more.

Dean Anthony Anderson

"If all you have to eat is an egg, you had better know how to cook it properly" ~ Herve This

Pastry Chef: One If By Land Two If By Sea

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Please note that your qoute from on food and cooking says "for best results", not for, "if you don't do this it won't work at all".

The cream didn't have enough butterfat.  end of discussion.  Stop talking about putting the beaters in correctly, or using foaming agents or a cream siphon or aging and temperature changes.  I can make whip cream for you with a spatula, mind you it would take much longer than with a whisk and I would have to keep refrigerating it, but still it is possible.

What aerates the cream is the proteins and what makes it happen is the fat.  After agitating the cream enough the proteins get pushed apart and the fat starts to find partner molecules to buddy up with.  Once enough fat has come together in thousands of larger particle pieces they are able to lock air within the fat globules.  the proteins help the fat sit tight long enough for this to happen.  Eventually enough air has been incoprorated that it is a homogenous mix and the air can be distributed evenly through the cream giving you whipped cream.

there is not enough fat, the company botched the batch, go get some more.

:wub::wub: I think I like this answer best of all. Makes my life simpler. I'll get back with what the store/company says and does.

Thanks, Chiantiglace :wub::wub:

***Just phoned the store and the manageress says to get right down there and she'll replace the cream. Yay team! and thanks to all.

Edited by Darienne (log)

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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29. The bowl and beaters...my brand new KA handmixer...

I had the same problem with a "brand new KA handmixer"

The old one had a much faster speed than the new one.

I called KA and asked why the new one had lower rpm than the old one...

got questionable answers. but after I said it would not work they said You should try the whisk beater. (its a single whisk beater rather than two individual beaters). I said "I don't have one" lady said, give me your address and we will send you one. It was No charge, and it works perfectly on cream and egg whites etc.

As usual, KA customer service , which is, in my humble opinion, the worlds best, came thru again....(no I don't work for them , I just have lots of their stuff and they are amazing , at least for me..)

Bud

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I had the same problem with a "brand new KA handmixer"

The old one had a much faster speed than the new one.

I called KA and asked why the new one had lower rpm than the old one...

got  questionable answers. but after I said it would not work they said You should try the whisk beater. (its a single whisk beater rather than two individual beaters). I  said "I don't have one" lady said, give me your address and we will send you one. It was No charge, and it works perfectly on cream and egg whites etc.

As usual, KA customer service , which is, in my humble opinion, the worlds best, came thru again....(no I don't work for them , I just have lots of their stuff and they are amazing , at least for me..)

Bud

My KA handmixer came with a balloon whisk. Glad you received one for free.

I now have the new whipping cream. Alas! I have no use for it for days.

Edited by Darienne (log)

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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I now have the new whipping cream.  Alas!  I have no use for it for days.

:laugh: Make some anyway! We all want to know what happens! :laugh:

OK. You are on. Be back soon........ :raz:

YES! :smile: We have whipped cream. Thanks to all of you who have followed this exciting story.... :raz: It's been quite a learning experience. :raz:

Edited by Darienne (log)

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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I just want to re-emphasize the answers from alanamoana and chiantiglace.....they are right on the money.

You don't have to have a clean cold mixer bowl to whip cream. In fact I will whip up buttercream and then once I scrape the bowl out I will whip cream in the same bowl, no problems. The issue of having a clean bowl only applies to the whipping of egg whites.

Chianti's point of not having enough butterfat in the cream is right on. Even though the label may say 32 percent butterfat, there may or may not be that amount in that particular container. For instance, my cream containers say, "MINIMUM 40 percent butterfat", so that means my half gal. of cream may have even 42%. It all depends on the batch and lot at the dairy. In the hundreds of gallons of cream I have whipped in my day, it's true, some batches DID NOT whip. I knew it was a butterfat problem and got immediate credit and replacement on my product.

It's also true that warming cream and letting it get cold again should not affect the whipability of it. I've scalded cream many times and used the refrigerated leftovers for whipping cream. No problems.

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