Posted by Mike Field on December 07, 2006 at 05:16:04 from 203.129.59.201 user mikefield.
In Reply to: Re: cooking in Sir Garnet, not Mrs. Dixon's kitchen posted by Elizabeth on December 07, 2006 at 01:58:59:
"We found a local dairy which delivers unhomogenized fresh milk in glass bottles."
You lucky, lucky, lucky person, Elizabeth. We used to have it delivered in pint bottles like that when I was a kid. Two or three inches of cream floated on top of the milk, and we kept it to make clotted cream with.
We used to have a special plastic siphon tube to take the cream off. There was a 1/4" hole in it at the level where the cream floated on the milk. You started the siphon going and took off the cream, then air got in once the level had dropped to the hole (where the cream had been exhausted,) and the flow stopped.
Now, if you poured the cream into a saucepan, did the same with another few bottles so as to have a reasonable quantity to work with, then brought it to the boil, let it cool, and skimmed off the thickened cream from the top, you had the best clotted cream you'll ever have in your life. Perfect with apricot pie, angels' food, apple pie, flummery, steamed pudding -- any sort of dessert you like.
Ah, memories....