dairy

The lexicon of European spicery is a work constantly under revision. Over many hundreds of years, spices, herbs and seasonings have slid in and out of the continent's food consciousness -- dragged into the region by excited explorers, becoming the focus of fads and crazes, and then falling out of favor again when people get bored with them or when something better or cheaper comes along.

Carrageen is a seaweed (its formal name is Chondrus crispus). Finding seaweed in the same sentence with the word "pudding" may seem a little strange. But carrageen is the product of one of Ireland's longest-running industries, and a very useful ingredient for the cook... especially one who's looking for jelling or setting ingredients that don't involve animal products. (By the way, greetings to our visitors from the forums at PostPunkKitchen.)

There's no telling who first noticed that this seaweed produces a thick jellylike substance that will jell up and set whatever liquid it's introduced to. The discovery may go back to Bronze Age times. But for many, many years, small seaside communities in Ireland eked out their income by gathering the carrageen seaweed from the rocks near their homes, drying and bleaching it (usually in the sun: nowadays the drying is handled in commercial ovens) and then selling it on as a setting agent, cheaper than gelatine and with its own unique, subdued flavor of the sea. Carrageen has made its way from Ireland all over the world, and can normally be found without too much trouble in health food stores, which sell it with an eye to its natural content of minerals and iron as well as for its natural thickening and demulcent qualities. (It turns up in cough medicines and numerous other preparations for sore throats and troubled chests, as well as in cosmetics and all kinds of food. Numerous dairy products in North America -- especially yogurts and sour creams -- now routinely contain carrageen as a thickener, instead of being made as they were back in the days when dairy products were given enough time, or allowed a high enough butterfat content, to thicken themselves.)

After it's been processed, the carrageen seaweed retains only the slightest taste or scent of the sea. Some people don't care for this: others think it adds a unique flavor to a dessert, an edgy, slightly spicy quality. This taste works particularly well with citrus flavors, and treatments including orange, or lemon, or both -- as in this pudding -- are commonplace in Irish cookbooks of the last couple of centuries.

Handling the carrageen itself is quite simple. A brief soaking in warm water activates the frilly, springy seaweed. After that it's simmered gently for a while with the milk of your choice: these recipes work as well with soy, rice or oat milks as they do with full-cream dairy. Sweetened and flavored -- in this case with lemon and orange juice and rind -- the thickened mixture is then strained, poured into bowls or molds, and chilled. The final product is a delicate dessert, suitable for having cream poured over it, or a tart fruit sauce. Carrageen's "set" tends to be more fragile and delicate than that of commercial gelatines, that being one reason that cooks who know about it seek it out. But if you're thinking of doing a carrageen dessert in a mold and you really expect it to stand upright, you'll want to increase the amount of seaweed you use in the cooking by about half.

Click on "read more" for the recipe and method.    

Clotted cream topped with jam
on freshly baked scones

To most people in Britain, the phrase "clotted cream" instantly summons up an image of teatime. Not just any teatime, either, but a slightly special tea, the famous Cream Tea, maybe experienced in a small country hotel or pub somewhere -- someplace cozy and homey -- with a spread of scones and sweet cakes, and little individual tubs (never big enough!) of rich, lovely clotted cream to spread on them.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be as clear an understanding of the clotted cream concept elsewhere in the world. Part of the problem may be the name itself, as the word "clotted" no longer sounds terribly appetizing to many English-speakers -- and Heaven only knows how the phrase translates into other languages. Sometimes even the way it looks, right out of the container, may put people off. EuroCuisineLady remembers one teatime on a transatlantic British Airways flight some years ago, when across the aisle an Asian gentleman opened up the little single-serving container of clotted cream that had come with the scone on his snack tray, took one look at the contents -- slightly crusted with golden butterfat on top -- and put it hurriedly aside as some bizarre Western dairy product that had gone terribly wrong.

Well, appearances can be deceiving, as clotted cream is one of the most delicious things imaginable to spread on a scone or other sweet biscuit -- faintly sweet, beautifully thick, rich and buttery, with a slight nutty aroma and flavor that comes from the ever-so-gentle cooking of the cream. Besides just spreading it on baked goods and spooning it over fresh berries or other fruit, clotted cream is great to use in baking and confectionery, if you've got enough of it. Clotted cream fudge is a favorite with the tourists in Cornwall and Devon, and clotted cream also can be used as an ingredient in ice cream as well as a wickedly rich and yummy topping for pies, cakes and other desserts. It even works well in hot drinks: hot chocolate or cocoa with a dollop of clotted cream melting gently in it becomes truly (as chocolate's botanical name Theobroma implies) a drink for the gods.

Fresh clotted cream

Possibly the ambiguity or potential unattractiveness of the phrase "clotted cream" is why some producers prefer to label this luscious stuff as "Devon cream" or "Devonshire cream", as a nod toward Devon and Cornwall, from which the best clotted cream still comes and where the high art of the Cream Tea is celebrated in tiny country tea shops and hostelries everywhere. In that westernmost of English regions, there is a long tradition of making extra money from home dairying by selling clotted cream as what would now be called a "value added product". In earlier times, making clotted cream at home was usually too much trouble for anyone who didn't already have a dairy of their own: city people were entirely delighted to buy it ready made on site (or by mail). It was also a great way for the home dairy owner to deal with all the extra cream that can pile up around the place when you'd already made all the butter you needed.

If you've never had clotted cream, you may first want to try some to see whether it's a delicacy you'd like to make at home. US readers can find it at online sources like The English Tea Store, British Delights and Britshoppe. (See also this Google search for more online sales sources.) UK and European users have a different range of sources: in the UK many supermarket chains and specialty food stores carry clotted cream, and you can also order online from the famous Rodda's of Cornwall. Irish readers, please note that the artisanal dairy Glenilen Farm of West Cork is now making and marketing its own clotted cream in the Republic.

If you're ready to try your hand at making your own clotted / Devonshire cream, it's not at all difficult. Click on "read more" for a complete description of traditional techniques and the easy modern method.