Clotted Cream and Berkeley Farm
If you have developed a taste for clotted cream whilst on your holidays, there is still one farm left in Swindon from which you can buy fresh non-homogenised milk.Berkeley Farm is on the Swindon road, Wroughton. The farm's fresh Guernsey milk can be bought there on Friday mornings.
Now, to the Clotted Cream manufacture, read on ....
[Berkeley Farm cows, in the distance, in front of stationery traffic on the m4]
 | Only fresh non-homogenised milk can be used to make Clotted Cream. See note at the bottom about homogenisation. |
 | The milk needs to be poured into a wide topped basin, and left to stand for up to 8 hours, in a cold place, or preferably in a fridge. |
 | Move the basin out carefully into a shallow pan of water and bring slowly to the boil. Let it simmer, very gently, for 2 to 3 hours until the cream has formed a rich, bubbly crust. |
 | rich, bubbly crust |
 | Allow to cool for several hours, again, best in a fridge. Skim the cream off into a dish. You will get about 4 oz of cream from 4 pints of milk. |
The remaining milk is quite useable in the normal way, in drinks or cooking.
(Adapted from June Kittow's "Favourite Cornish Recipies", J Salmon Ltd
A note on Homogenisation from Waitrose Forum:
Homogenisation is achieved by forcing milk through a fine nozzle in a jet against a hard surface. By doing this the cream molecules are broken down to about a micron in size and also part company with their protective membrane. They are no longer able to rise to the surface and therefore become totally dispersed in the rest of the milk. Prior to this the fat content will have been reduced in a centrifuge. Several additional processes can be added to the milk before it is finally packed for distribution and sale. Temperature is not the only critical factor determining the shelf life of milk. It deteriorates in daylight and is best kept in the dark. However that is too inconvenient for the dairy industry who continue to package it in bottles for doorstep delivery because they can be reused after sterilisation, plastic flasks for supermarkets who keep the temperature down but bathe it in intense light, and waxed paper cartons which are perhaps the closest to the ideal from a conservation point of view but discouraged by eco-warriors because they cannot be recycled.
The resulting product doesn't look, smell or taste like milk used to, but unless you know a cheese maker that's as good as it gets folks. I mention cheese only because you can't make cheese with what we buy to drink. It has to be crude milk with all the fat molecules intact.
To finally address the point of concern about the potentially detremental effects of micron-sized fat particles in homogenised milk, nobody knows. And nobody knows because nobody is looking. And nobody is looking because somebody who knows best thinks it is best if we just don't go there. Much of our modern lives is predicated on the same philosophy, but I'm not a politician so I won't go there....!
