Slow cooker as a water jacket
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Clotted cream (Cornish style)
High-fat cream scalded below boiling for at least an hour until a thick crust forms, then cooled hard so the crust sets and the cream beneath thickens.
Cream that forms a crust
Clotted cream is high-fat cream heated below boiling until a thick crust forms on the surface, then cooled so that the crust sets and the cream beneath it thickens. The Cornish Clotted Cream product specification sets the process, and this page follows it: cream of at least 55% butterfat, scalded at 70–80 °C (158–176 °F) without boiling for at least one hour, then cooled to 5 °C (41 °F) or below.
The specification is a product standard, not a home recipe. It gives no batch size and no shelf life for the cream made at home.
Sources for this section
Why the surface and the long low scald matter
The crust is the product of the long, low scald. The draft's evidence note says that a sealed bag removes the surface the crust needs, which is why a bagged route is not treated here as an equivalent. The specification does not explain the chemistry of the crust, so this page does not add a mechanism for it.
Sources for this section
Cornish and the protected name
Cornish clotted cream is a protected designation. The name belongs to cream made in Cornwall to the specification, and a home result is Cornish-style rather than the protected product. The specification says clotted cream has been made in Cornwall for many generations and is noted in seventeenth-century literature, and that the milk-preserving use is the reason for the process. The Phoenician story it repeats is not adopted here.
Sources for this section
Oven and water-bath routes (untested adaptation)
Untested adaptation: a shallow open dish in a low oven, or an open dish warmed over a water-jacketed bath such as a slow cooker or a circulator. No home appliance method was found in the sources. The 70–80 °C range is a cream temperature measured in the dish, not an oven setting. A bath heats from below while the surface loses heat, which may form a different crust from the one the specification describes.
Sources for this section
Cooling and keeping
The specification gives the cooling limit of 5 °C (41 °F) as the control after scalding and gives no storage time. No home shelf life is documented, and this page does not infer one.
Sources for this section
What the sources leave open
Oven or bath setting: no home appliance method found.
Behaviour of cream below 55% fat: the specification does not say.
Storage: not stated.
Sources for this section
History
The specification says clotted cream has been made in Cornwall for many generations, is noted in seventeenth-century literature, and served to extend the life of fat-rich milk. It repeats a story about Phoenician traders as the view of some historians and does not stand behind it.
Ingredients
Scaling: source batch only
CreamCream separated from cows' milk, at least 55% butterfat, as the specification requires.
Amount not stated
no batch quantity in the specificationMethod
Risks and precautions · Standard risk
Cool to 5 °C or below after scalding
Control sourceNo home shelf life is documented; do not infer one.
- Use cream with a minimum butterfat content of 55%.
- Scald the cream to 70–80 °C (158–176 °F), not allowing it to boil, for a minimum of one hour; a thick crust forms during this time.
- Cool to a maximum of 5 °C (41 °F); the crust hardens and the cream beneath thickens.
Conditions
Temperature70–80°C
Temperature controlMulti-stage
Places
Cornwall
Documented preparation · Region evidenceProtected designation: Cornish clotted cream is the name of cream made in Cornwall to the specification (EU registration 1 October 1998, UK registration 31 December 2020).
Related
Equipment
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Sources
Defra / GOV.UKMethod · History · Identity
Cornish Clotted Cream product specification55% butterfat
70–80 °C at least one hour, no boiling
cool to 5 °C maximum
description
history claims
registration dates
Cited in: Cream that forms a crust; Why the surface and the long low scald matter; Cornish and the protected name; Oven and water-bath routes (untested adaptation); Cooling and keeping; What the sources leave open