How to Make Clotted Cream

In England, clotted cream is served over scones, desserts, and fresh fruit; it is a considered to be a luxury addition taken on the occasional high tea as a popular treat. For those who've never had clotted cream before, it resembles a kind of cross between butter and whipped cream. 

Best of all, it is extremely easy to make, and requires only a single ingredient. The best clotted cream is made from cream that is not heavily pasteurized. You may use the following recipes with pasteurized cream you find in the grocery store, but best results will come from fresh, organic cream that wasn't heated to extremely high temperatures.

Processing-

1. Preheat your oven to 180° F (82° C). Clotted cream thrives on low heat over a long period.
2. Get high fat, not ultra-pasteurized cream if at all possible. Pasteurization is heating food, usually a liquid, to a very high temperature and then immediately cooling it down. The high heat lessens spoilage by preventing microbial growth, but a by-product of this is that the structure of the cream erodes, along with some of the taste. In order to get the tastiest clotted cream, stick with organic, high-fat, less pasteurized cream.
3. Pour any amount of cream into a heavy-bottomed pot with a lid. The main thing to worry about here is how high up the sides of the pot the cream goes. Try to get it so that the cream comes up at least one inch and no more than three inches on the pot.

1. Place the cream-filled pot in the pre-heated oven and cook for at least 8 hours. Cover the pot with its lid and close the oven door. The cream may take as long as 12 hours to fully clot.
2. After 8 hours, the cream will develop a thicker, yellowish skin resting on top of the cream. This is the clotted cream. If you're checking on the cream in the oven, be careful not to puncture the clotted cream on top. Remove the pan with the clotted cream from the oven and let cool at room temperature. Then, place the pan in the refrigerator and refrigerate for another 8 hours, being careful not to disturb the outer skin.
3. Separate the clotted cream on top from the whey-like liquid below. Reserve the whey liquid for use in cooking or baking. (Buttermilk pancakes, anyone?)
4. Enjoy! Store for three or four days in the refrigerator.

What is clabber milk?

Clabber milk is a naturally fermented milk product that can be eaten raw or used in recipes. It also has a little leavening power all on its own, so it’s great to add to baked goods.

Raw cow’s milk is full of naturally occurring beneficial lactic acid bacteria. When that bacteria is supported with a warm environment, it will ferment the milk and create something like a cross between yogurt and kefir. Eventually, if left to ferment long enough, the clabber milk will separate into curds and whey.

Fermenting or souring milk is VERY different than having milk spoil. Spoiled milk only occurs if the beneficial bacteria found in clean raw cow’s milk have been killed by pasteurization, thus allowing mold spores or other contaminants to flourish.

In a fermented milk product, the lactic acid bacteria have soured the milk with the lactic acids they produce while consuming lactose. The higher acidity keeps other microbes that can be harmful to humans from growing. It is very important that you use only high-quality raw milk from clean grass-fed cows when making clabber milk.

Why Should I Eat Clabber Milk?

In Harold McGee’s book “On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen” he elaborates on “The Health Benefits of Fermented Milks,” stating:

The standard industrial yogurt and buttermilk bacteria are specialized to grow well in milk and can’t survive inside the human body. But other bacteria found in traditional, spontaneously fermented milk-Lactobacillus fermentum, L. casei, and L. brevis, for example-as well as L. planetarium from pickled vegetables, and the intestinal native L. acidophilus, do take up residence in us. articular strains of these bacteria vPariously adhere to and shield the intestinal wall, secrete antibacterial compounds, boost the body’s immune response to particular disease microbes, dismantle cholesterol and cholesterol-consuming bile acids, and reduce the production of potential carcinogens.

Making Clabber Milk-

The process is very simple.

Start by sterilizing a glass jar and lid in boiling water. To do so, fill your jar with hot tap water to avoid shattering the glass with the heat difference. Add the lid directly to the pan of boiling water, empty the jar of the warm water and pour boiling water into the warmed jar, and let it sit for a few minutes. Empty the jar and air dry the lid and jar on a clean towel. Let the jar and lid cool completely before using.

Add the raw milk to the sterilized jar and secure the lid loosely.

Ferment the raw milk at room temperature until the milk sours and starts to separate. This can take between 1 to 5 days depending on the age of the milk, the temperature in your home, and the natural bacteria in the milk itself.

When the clabber has solidified it can then be skimmed off the clotted cream, used for baking, eaten like yogurt, or strained to separate the curds from the whey.

After straining the clabber, the whey can be used as a starter for any lacto-fermented project from veggies to grains, and is especially useful for starting a new batch of clabber milk. Using a tablespoon of clabber whey in the new batch of milk will speed the fermentation process along considerably. The curds will thicken and sweeten with straining and take on a cream cheese-like texture.