Fresh cream. Fresh raw cream. I love it in all its thick, silky glory. I love the taste, and the texture it lends to dishes - both savory and sweet. There's nothing quite like it, and when cream's truly fresh - it borders on the divine.
We're fortunate, after a year or two of developing our local foodshed, to have access to fresh cream from guernsey cows at an expansive Colorado ranch just a short drive away. The cream is delivered in charming little pint-sized jam jars every Tuesday for $5. What a delicious way to spend $5.
Many folks don't consider fresh cream a seasonal food, but it is. Spring is calving season. Grass is vibrantly green and rapidly growing. And cream, real cream is flowing. At this time, cream is plentiful and deeply nourishing. Cows allowed to graze on fresh pasture - and rapidly growing green grass in particular - produce a cream that is as rich in flavor as it is in nutrients. Indeed, fresh cream is one of springtime's best foods. Historically, spring's fresh cream was prized for its unique properties and it was reserved for butter making and stored - often in peat - for use throughout the year. Indeed, we're still stumbling across forgotten parcels of bog butter including some that are 2,000 years old.
This cream is particularly dense in fat soluble vitamins as well as conjugated linoleic acid and even coenzyme Q10. Fat soluble vitamins, like all vitamins, are fragile and delicate nutrients. Heat, like that required for pasteurization, destroys these delicate, natural and valuable nutrients. Indeed, after pasteurization cream is no longer whole - it's missing these natural vitamins. Even worse, cream is often pasteurized at ultra-high temperatures which denatures the fats even further; the end result is a food that is differs dramatically from the nourishing food that nature intended.
Fresh, raw cream is a living food. It contains beneficial bacteria and enzymes which are otherwise destroyed during pasteurization and it is precisely these components of living foods that make them so valuable to our overall health. These enzymes enable better digestion of macronutrients and better absorption of micronutrients while the beneficial bacteria promotes intestinal health and a well-functioning immune system.
To keep the beneficial bacteria, enzymes and delicate vitamins intact, keep the cream raw or just barely warm it. In traditional societies studied by Weston A. Price and discussed in his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, if dairy products like fresh cream and butter were consumed they were invariably consumed raw. In essence, by consuming fresh cream in its freshest form you're adhering to the same dietary principles that nourished your forebears. Besides, it just tastes better.
Nathan Suhl says
By drinking raw milk from Jersey cows every day and using raw cream unheated in some form, I have found that using some in a cooking recipe doesn’t hurt a bit even though it is basically pasteurzing it. Besides, the cream in stores that is ultra heat treated, by law I believe, can’t have over 36% butterfat.!I have found the absolute best way to use raw cream in recipe and it is the best thing I’ve ever tasted. Clotted cream, and homemade scones with an English jam. I’ve never had anything more divine. I believe this raw cream probably has between 45-60% butterfat and made into clotted cream is awesome! I poured a quart of raw cream into a baking pan so it’s about and inch or a little more deep. Set the oven to the lowest setting at 170, and bake for 12 hrs. Remove and careful not to swish around too much, set on the counter to cool completely to room temp. Then cover in cling wrap and put in the fridge overnight. The next day, use a fork to peel back the corner and drain the liquid underneath and then spoon all the thick clotted cream into a dish and keep in the fridge. Put on fresh scones is amazing with jam. It tastes like a mix between butter, whipped cream and almost a nutty, fresh caramel taste. Very rich. It’s as close to the real English clotted cream as you’ll ever get without going to England to get some.
Nathan Suhl says
I just bought my first ever pint of raw cream, and it’s probably the best real dairy product I’ve ever tasted. I put big blobs of it in my coffee, chocolate milk, I’m going to try and make farm fresh eggs in cream in a skillet. I even ate a couple straight spoonfuls of it. Not sure what else to make with it yet. It’s thick, a spoon will stand up in it, not pourable, but I do have access to pourable raw cream too. Any suggestions for the thick cream? Thanks
Peytn says
I leave mine out for a few days to ferment and become sour cream. Then I add salt and onion powder to make sour cream and onion dip. Great on potatoes and chicken or dip some chips in it. Full of probiotics and delicious!
Genna says
How long does raw cream last in the fridge?
Jenny says
About a week.