Clotted Cream

by wjw on November 27, 2011

(Internet service still spotty. Will try to keep this short.)

I was at a friend’s birthday party this afternoon, and noticed there was clotted cream. (The real stuff, too, came from England in a bottle. Not the American kind which is just whipped cream with some kind of emulsifier in it.)

“Look!” I told Kathy. “There’s clotted cream!”

“Is it good on scones?” she asked. “I’ve just got a scone.”

“It’s good on everything,” I said. “It’s just . . . like . . . bacon!”

So what else is just like bacon? Or clotted cream? Or both?

And how would they taste together?

And . . . hmmm . . . have I just invented the bacon sconeburger?

wjw November 27, 2011 at 5:19 am: The bacon cheeseburger was invented by the A&W drive-in chain in the Sixties. True historical fact.

Bacon has come a long way since then.
Oz November 27, 2011 at 1:53 pm: My life was incomplete without that knowledge.
kathy November 27, 2011 at 2:05 pm: BTW, clotted cream IS good on scones.
Dave Bishop November 27, 2011 at 9:22 pm: I was following this particular posting up to Kathy’s scone query (which seems eminently reasonable) … then it becomes a bit cryptic … is it in code?
Pete Johannsen November 28, 2011 at 3:49 am: Currently this post is the #1 search result for “bacon and clotted cream”. There are many paths to fame, I guess.
Dave Bishop November 28, 2011 at 10:39 am: kathy,
Try strawberry jam (jelly?) with the scones and clotted cream. Bacon is (most definitely) not traditional here in England. Although I am, in general, in favour of culinary innovation I think I’ll let you and Walter try it first … perhaps you might like to report back?
Shash November 29, 2011 at 1:12 am: Dave, think of a bacon bap only use the scone for the bap and add clotted cream. Rather crumbly, I would think. Strawberry jam is the best with clotted cream, maybe peach or apricot jam is second.

Real clotted cream costs a fortune over here, but Byerly’s carries it in the Twin Cities. The American version, called Devonshire Cream or Devon Cream, uses marscapone cheese and has a distinct sour aftertaste. Not good.
Jason Musgrave November 29, 2011 at 3:14 pm: Green chili jelly and clotted cream. Mmmm…
DensityDuck November 30, 2011 at 12:36 am: It’s not Just Like Bacon because hipsters don’t think it’s funny and ironic to be all zany about clotted cream.
wjw November 30, 2011 at 5:31 am: Pete, at this stage I’ll take whatever fame I can get.

Dave, you have a different kind of bacon over there, what we Americans call “that horrible stuff you get with a full English breakfast, next to the equally horrible sausage and the tomato fried in grease.” So I can understand this idea would lack some appeal for you.

(Now I =have= had good English bacon with English breakfasts, it’s just not been very common in the sorts of hotels and B&Bs in which I’ve stayed. Namely the cheap ones.)

In recent years I’ve had bacon-flavored popcorn. (Disturbingly good.) And ice cream with crispy bacon bits— but that was in France, so of course it was terrific.

But bacon =and= clotted cream? Oh yeah. Ooh.
wjw November 30, 2011 at 5:43 am: Oh. And the reason Americans don’t do clotted cream well is that our cows don’t give milk with =nearly= the butterfat content of English cows.

And yet we manage to have heart attacks anyway. Sad but true.
Oz November 30, 2011 at 11:16 am: I know where and when you had that popcorn with bacon and who brought it to the party. Not me. I brought the tequila. Eric brought the spiced rum.
Melinda November 30, 2011 at 7:21 pm: It’s not so much the cows. We do have high butter fat breeds in this country. It’s the amount of work, and altitude plays a part. I used to buy raw milk directly from the dairy and I tried making clotted cream, but even the altitude in Albuquerque (a mile high) made it not clot . It was very disheartening. My little local market sells clotted cream imported from England, and Connie Willis brought me _two_ bottles for my birthday. I’m going to have a party in my mouth for months.