In Overheard, we're sharing all of the best tidbits we couldn't help picking up on -- from smart tips on the Hotline to funny quotes heard around the water cooler and more -- so we can all be in the know.
Over on the Hotline, Diana B asked about using half and half in recipes calling for equal volumes of cream and milk. It seems like an obvious substitution, but depending on your recipe that might not work -- hardlikearmour explains why:
It's not a 50-50 ratio. Whole milk is approximately 4% fat, heavy whipping cream is 36 to 40% butterfat, and half and half is 10.5 to 12% fat. A 50-50 mix gets you about 21% fat. A better mix would be 1/4 heavy cream to 3/4 whole milk which puts you around 12.5% fat. (If you have plain whipping cream, which is 30 to 35% fat, you'll be at about 11% fat.)
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Written by: Lindsay-Jean Hard
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11 Comments
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4
20
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4
= 4 cups of liquid milk with 5% milkfat
Half & Half is half Whole Milk 4% and half LIGHT cream 20%, NOT heavy cream 36% nor whipping cream 40%.
This results in 4 + 20 = 24 ÷ 2 = 12 (but Light Cream can legally be as low as 18% and Half & Half can legally be as low as 10%)
Further confusion will be made by individual dairies and their range of products that might divert butterfat for different ends)
Head to the Hotline discussion for more on the topic: https://food52.com/hotline/27889-cream-milk-and-half-half
Skim milk? 0% obviously.
Whole Milk? 3.25%
Half and Half? 18%
Heavy Cream? 35%
So... half and half IS half and half. Half heavy cream and half skim. 35% + 0% /2 = 17.5%
But oftentimes a recipe calling for cream is going to be calling for whole milk, not skim, arguably making hardlikearmour's ratio a better substitution. Plus, milk fat content of half and half can vary a lot, so it's not an exact science either way!
See what other Food52 readers are saying.