Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Whipped cream problem:


Darienne

Recommended Posts

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.

And I would like to thank you and all the others who helped me with this problem. The knowledge of the folks on this forum and the incredible generosity of the sharing of that knowledge is simply amazing. :wub:

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For the creme parisienne, wouldn't the soy lecithin already in the chocolate help with the whipping, thereby eliminating (or at least minimizing) the need for chilling?

while i don't know for sure, i would say that there isn't enough lecithin to make a difference. it DOES need to be VERY chilled, but it DOESN'T need to be chilled overnight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I buy cream from a dairy that packages it in these little glass bottles. I got it home and whipped and whipped and whipped, stick blender, wisks, you name it. Nothing worked. Looked at the bottle a little closer and discovered they package the half and half in the same types of bottles - just different caps.

Not saying you did this, but it seemed a fitting place to come clean.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alanamoana...

Re: creme parisienne and whip-ability....

you actually gave me the recipe for it on a previous thread (thank you!!!! I love it! It rocks!)

This actually happened to me once when I made the recipe. It just wouldn't whip. I just assumed that I either didn't get it cold enough or I put too much chocolate. Are those better possible answers (for creme parisienne) or did I get whipping cream with not enough butter fat as well?

Just want to make sure so I don't screw it up the next time. It turned into a family favorite. I buy the same exact cream from the same exact store everytime.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Matt,

Good try, but no go. :raz: The cream is in a pink bottle and the whipping cream is in a sort of purple.

And Ambra. I buy the whipping cream always from the same company and it's the best one in Utah. Cream of Weber. The purest, fewest ingredients, lack of multisyllabic junk, freshest, etc.

ps. Used the not whipping cream plus the actually whipped new cream with some sour cream which I made using whipping cream all in some ice cream today: banana pineapple. :wub:

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If your cream has too little fat to whip, you can melt a little unsalted butter, then whisk in the cream, chill, then whip. RLB has directions in the Cake Bible. For the 25% cream I have here, I add about 40 grams butter to 1 cup cream, and that whips.

I have experienced frozen cream (38% fat) that would not whip, even tried heating it to melt the fat globules then chilling it again, but no dice. Some cartons got frozen but some didn't, so unfortunately I don't know which will whip and which won't. At least it is still good for ice cream.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The cream didn't have enough butterfat.  end of discussion.

Bingo.

The issue may from using artisinal cream from a small dairy. They may work with methods that are less consistent from batch to batch. Or they may even separate the cream "naturally," meaning with gravity, instead of a centifuge. This is the old fashioned way, and it's why the old fashioned way of whipping cream required herculean endurance and a lot of luck. It's just very difficult to produce cream with butterfat levels over 30% with the old methods.

But this is all conjecture. I'd check with the farm.

Notes from the underbelly

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If your cream has too little fat to whip, you can melt a little unsalted butter, then whisk in the cream, chill, then whip.  RLB has directions in the Cake Bible.  For the 25% cream I have here, I add about 40 grams butter to 1 cup cream, and that whips. 

I have experienced frozen cream (38% fat) that would not whip, even tried heating it to melt the fat globules then chilling it again, but no dice.  Some cartons got frozen but some didn't, so unfortunately I don't know which will whip and which won't.  At least it is still good for ice cream.

Thanks for that information, PastryGirl. :wink:

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Remember the original immersion blender commercial (infomercial?) from back in the day that featured whipped cream made of low fat or skim milk?  How'd they do that without all the fat?

You can whip just about any emulsion into a foam. Something as mighty as a bamix makes it easy. The result in this case is going to be different from a traditional whipped cream; it will extremely light (mostly air) and have virtually no stability. You can expect it to deflate almost like soap bubbles after you plate it.

This is different from a high butterfat cream that will whip into a stable foam easily without much effort.

Notes from the underbelly

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Remember the original immersion blender commercial (infomercial?) from back in the day that featured whipped cream made of low fat or skim milk?  How'd they do that without all the fat?

protein. that's why skim actually makes great foam for espresso drinks. high protein content, no fat. thus the instability. but, when heated, it can set the protein and you get a little more stable foam. i think mcgee covers this pretty well in "on food and cooking".

edited to add: you don't even need a bamix to do this. you can use a french press (i think i posted this in another forum or thread), rapidly moving the mesh up and down in skim milk to create a nice thick foam and then heat for a few seconds in the microwave to make a great espresso drink.

Edited by alanamoana (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Remember the original immersion blender commercial (infomercial?) from back in the day that featured whipped cream made of low fat or skim milk?  How'd they do that without all the fat?

protein. that's why skim actually makes great foam for espresso drinks. high protein content, no fat. thus the instability. but, when heated, it can set the protein and you get a little more stable foam. i think mcgee covers this pretty well in "on food and cooking".

edited to add: you don't even need a bamix to do this. you can use a french press (i think i posted this in another forum or thread), rapidly moving the mesh up and down in skim milk to create a nice thick foam and then heat for a few seconds in the microwave to make a great espresso drink.

Or alternatively heat first...OH does this every morning for his coffee. He uses a milk frother that looks like a very narrow French press with a much taller cylinder, it works really well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But without heating (to cook the proteins) it takes some brute force to make a foam from milk, or any other very low fat emulsion.

The idea is that you're using the high speed of the machine to make a large number of very small bubbles, rahter than a smaller number of big ones. This puts the surface tension of the liquid to work for you, and means that it will take more time for the small bubbles to find each other, merge into bigger bubbles, and pop. It's still not as stable as a high fat whipped cream, but it's usuable for some things if you can serve right away.

Notes from the underbelly

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What chianti & alana said.

At one place I worked the exec chef only wanted to use an uber natural, nothing added Heavy Cream and sure enough, one late spring I pulled out a 1/2 gallon start whipping and nothing happened.

Told my colleague, pulled out more, same thing.

Put some in the freezer with all of the bowls, nothing.

On investigation found out the dairy's can control the amount of fat ( fat is money) during processing.

Not to mention the feed change between the seasons.

Still wasn't dependable so we went back with the one with gums and stabilizers.

2317/5000

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But without heating (to cook the proteins) it takes some brute force to make a foam from milk, or any other very low fat emulsion.

actually the method with the french press doesn't take much effort at all. you start with cold and only use a little heat to stabilize a little (and so you don't end up with cold coffee). it could easily be something that you used in a restaurant on a line for a la minute service.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

actually the method with the french press doesn't take much effort at all.  you start with cold and only use a little heat to stabilize a little (and so you don't end up with cold coffee).  it could easily be something that you used in a restaurant on a line for a la minute service.

"use a little heat" / "a la minute service" ... you're paraphrasing what I said!

Notes from the underbelly

Link to comment
Share on other sites

actually the method with the french press doesn't take much effort at all.  you start with cold and only use a little heat to stabilize a little (and so you don't end up with cold coffee).  it could easily be something that you used in a restaurant on a line for a la minute service.

"use a little heat" / "a la minute service" ... you're paraphrasing what I said!

i guess i misunderstood you. i thought you meant adding the heat before frothing the milk. and what i was trying to emphasize was that it doesn't take "brute force". i am not trying to make the case that you will have anything very stable like whipped cream.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...