Hazelwood Cream Station in Genesee, Idaho, United States, photographer Russell Lee 1941.

Cream (from Greek chrisma, literally “an anointing”) is a dairy product that is composed of the higher-butterfat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, over time, the lighter fat rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream this process is accelerated by using centrifuges called “separators”. In many countries, cream is sold in several grades depending on total butterfat content.

Cream is used as an ingredient in many foods, including ice cream, many sauces, soups, stews, puddings, and some custard bases, and is also used for cakes. Irish cream is an alcoholic liqueur which blends cream with whiskey and coffee. Cream is also used in curries such as masala dishes.

Cream produced by livestock grazing on natural pastures often contains some natural carotenoid pigments derived from the plants they eat; this gives the cream a slight yellow tone, hence the name of the yellowish-white color cream. Cream from livestock fed indoors, on grain or grain-based pellets, is white. The chemistry of whole milk is such that it separates into cream and milk best at a temperature of about 100º Fahrenheit.

Types of cream

Here is a list of cream products and associated percentages of fat: in the United States, cream is usually sold as:

Half and half (10.5-18% fat)
Light, coffee, or table cream (18-30% fat)
Medium cream (25% fat)
Whipping or light whipping cream (30-36% fat)
Pegs of cream (15-20%)
Heavy whipping cream (36% or more)
Extra-heavy or manufacturer’s cream (38-40% or more) *generally not available at retail except at some warehouse stores.

Not all grades are defined by all jurisdictions, and the exact fat content ranges vary. The above figures are based on the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21, Part 131 [1][2] and a small sample of state regulations.

Other cream products

Sour cream in the U.S. is cream (18% or more milk fat) that has been subjected to a bacterial culture that produces lactic acid (0.5%+), which sours and thickens it.

Crème fraîche is a heavy cream (30–40% milk fat) slightly soured with bacterial culture, but not as sour or as thick as American sour cream. Mexican crema (or cream espesa) is similar to crème fraîche. Kysana smetana is a Central and Eastern European sour cream.

In the UK, clotted cream (similar to Indian malai) is a very high-fat (55%) product processed with heat. For cooking purposes, both single and double cream can be used in cooking, although the former can separate when heated, usually if there is a high acid content. Most UK chefs always use double cream or full-fat crème fraîche when cream is added to a hot sauce, to prevent any problem with it separating or “splitting”. In sweet and savoury custards such as those found in flan fillings, crème brûlées and crème caramels, both types of cream are called for in different recipes depending on how rich a result is called for. It is useful to note that double cream can also be thinned down with water to make an approximation of single cream if necessary.

Whipped cream

Cream with 30% or more fat can be turned into whipped cream by mixing it with air. The resulting colloid is roughly double the volume of the original cream as air bubbles are captured in a network of fat droplets. If, however, the whipping is continued, the fat droplets will stick together destroying the colloid and forming butter; the remaining liquid is buttermilk. Confectioner’s sugar (also known as icing sugar) is sometimes added to the colloid in order to stiffen the mixture and to reduce the risk of over whipping.

Whipped cream may be sold ready-to-use in pressurized containers. Nitrous oxide is used as a propellant, and when the cream leaves the nozzle, it produces four times the volume of cream, i.e., twice the volume produced by whipping air into it. Using this technique, it may also be prepared in reusable dispensers, similar to a seltzer siphon bottle, using inexpensive disposable nitrous oxide cartridges. However, the whipped cream produced with nitrous oxide is unstable, and will return to a more or less liquid state within half an hour to one hour. Thus, the method is not suitable for decorating food that will not be immediately served.

Chantilly cream

Chantilly cream (French: crème Chantilly) is whipped cream with sugar and vanilla. Perfect on top of a waffle with strawberries, it is used in pastry both for its taste and as a decoration. Ice cream is also frequently served with Chantilly. The original recipe was created by François Vatel, maître d’ at the Château de Chantilly in the 17th century. The basic Chantilly is made of whipped cream and sugar although there are slight variations in some countries. The most important thing to get the correct result is the ratio between the two ingredients. The ideal portions are 60 grams of sugar for every 200 millilitres of whipping cream. Before whipping, you can add half a teaspoon of vanilla extract or vanilla bean to taste. Remember to use cold utensils when preparing Chantilly cream!

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Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) – Non-profit organization founded to protect the rights of farmers to provide meat, eggs, raw dairy products, vegetables and other foods directly to consumers. http://www.FarmToConsumer.org/

Gourmet Sleuth – Food and Cooking Resource http://GourmetSleuth.com

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American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA) http://ADGA.org

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American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) http://ADSA.org

International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) http://IDFA.org

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Our separators are covered by a limited two-year warranty which covers lost or damaged parts. Returns are accepted only if the product is faulty, and a 10% restocking fee will be charged.

Making butter

Unhomogenized milk and cream contain butterfat in microscopic globules. These globules are surrounded by membranes which prevent the fat in milk from pooling together into a single mass. Butter is produced by agitating cream, which damages these membranes and allows the milk fats to conjoin, separating from the other parts of the cream. Variations in the production method will create butters with different consistencies, mostly due to the butterfat composition in the finished product. Butter contains fat in three separate forms: free butterfat, butterfat crystals, and undamaged fat globules. In the finished product, different proportions of these forms result in different consistencies within the butter; butters with many crystals are harder than butters dominated by free fats.

Churning produces small butter grains floating in the water-based portion of the cream. This watery liquid is called buttermilk—although the buttermilk most common today is instead a directly fermented skimmed milk. The buttermilk is drained off; sometimes more buttermilk is removed by rinsing the grains with water. Then the grains are worked: pressed and kneaded together. When prepared manually, this is done using wooden boards called “Scotch hands”. This consolidates the butter into a solid mass and breaks up embedded pockets of buttermilk or water into tiny droplets.

Commercial butter is about 80% butterfat and 15% water; traditionally-made butter may have as little as 65% fat and 30% water. Butter becomes rancid when the fatty acid chains break down into smaller components, like butyric acid and diacetyl.

Cultured butter

Before modern factory butter making, cream was usually collected from several milkings and was therefore several days old and somewhat fermented by the time it was made into butter. Butter made from a fermented cream is known as cultured butter. During fermentation, the cream naturally sours as bacteria convert milk sugars into lactic acid. The fermentation process produces additional aroma compounds, including diacetyl, which makes for a fuller-flavored and more “buttery” tasting product. Today, cultured butter is usually made from pasteurized cream whose fermentation is produced by the introduction of Lactococcus and Leuconostoc bacteria.

Another method for producing cultured butter, developed in the early 1970s, is to produce butter from fresh cream and then incorporate bacterial cultures and lactic acid. Using this method, the cultured butter flavor grows as the butter is aged in cold storage. For manufacturers, this method is more efficient since aging the cream used to make butter takes significantly more space than simply storing the finished butter product. A method to make an artificial simulation of cultured butter is to add lactic acid and flavor compounds directly to the fresh-cream butter; while this more efficient process is claimed to simulate the taste of cultured butter, the product produced is not cultured but is instead flavored.

Sweet cream butter

Today, dairy products are often pasteurized during production to kill pathogenic bacteria and other microbes. Butter made from pasteurized fresh cream is called sweet cream butter. Production of sweet cream butter first became common in the 19th century, with the development of refrigeration and the mechanical cream separator. Butter made from fresh or cultured unpasteurized cream is called raw cream butter. Raw cream butter has a “cleaner” cream flavor, without the cooked-milk notes that pasteurization introduces.

Throughout Continental Europe, cultured butter is preferred, while sweet cream butter dominates in the United States and the United Kingdom. Therefore, cultured butter is sometimes labeled European-style butter in the United States. Commercial raw cream butter is virtually unheard-of in the United States. Raw cream butter is generally only found made at home by consumers who have purchased raw whole milk directly from dairy farmers, skimmed the cream themselves, and made butter with it. It’s rare in Europe as well.

Another important aspect of production is the amount of butterfat in the finished product. In the United States, all products sold as “butter” must contain a minimum of 80% butterfat by weight; most American butters contain only slightly more than that, averaging around 81%. European-style butters generally have a higher ratio of up to 85% butterfat.

October 2007 Grand Champion Senior Doe, Finesse in Raleigh, NC

Homogenization and Pasteurization

Milk is often homogenized, a treatment which prevents a cream layer from separating out of the milk. The milk is pumped at high pressures through very narrow tubes, breaking up the fat globules through turbulence and cavitation. Homogenized milk tastes blander but feels creamier in the mouth than unhomogenized; it is whiter and more resistant to developing off flavors. Creamline, or cream-top milk is unhomogenized, and it may or may not have been pasteurized. Unlike pasteurization, homogenization confers no health or safety benefits to the milk, only the convenience of not needing to shake the bottle oneself.


Pasteurization is not intended to kill all of the pathogenic micro-organisms in the food or liquid, but to achieve a reduction in the number of viable organisms, reducing their number so that they are unlikely to cause disease (assuming the pasteurised product is refrigerated and consumed before its expiration date). Pasteurisation typically uses temperatures below boiling since at temperatures above the boiling point for milk will make it “curdle”.


Unhomogenized milk has made a small comeback in a few areas, such as the west coast of the United States where Straus Family Creameries, based originally out of Sonoma, sells one line of organic milk with the cream still on top in old-fashioned glass bottles. They still however pasteurize it to prevent harmful microorganisms.

Nutrition and health

The composition of milk differs widely between species. Factors such as the type of protein; the proportion of protein, fat, and sugar; the levels of various vitamins and minerals; and the size of the butterfat globules and the strength of the curd are among those than can vary.


Studies show possible links between low-fat milk consumption and reduced risk of arterial hypertension, coronary heart disease, colorectal cancer and obesity. Overweight individuals who drink milk may benefit from decreased risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.


Conjugated linoleic acid is a beneficial fatty acid that inhibits several types of cancer in mice, it has been shown to kill human skin cancer, colorectal cancer and breast cancer cells in vitro studies, and may help lower cholesterol and prevent atherosclerosis; only available in milk from grass-fed cows.


Interestingly, a study has shown that for women desiring to have a child, those who consume full fat dairy products may actually slightly increase their fertility, while those consuming low fat dairy products may slightly reduce their fertility due to interference with ovulation. However, studies in this area are still inconsistent.

Nutritional benefits

Cow milk (whole)
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)

Source: USDA Nutrient database
Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults.

Energy 60 kcal 250 kJ

Carbohydrates 5.2 g
- Sugars 5.2 g
– Lactose 5.2 g

Fat 3.25 g
- saturated 1.9 g
- monounsaturated 0.8 g
- polyunsaturated 0.2 g

Protein 3.2 g
Water 88 g
Vitamin A equiv. 28 µg 3%
Thiamin (Vit. B1) 0.04 mg 3%
Riboflavin (Vit. B2) 0.18 mg 12%
Vitamin B12 0.44 µg 18%
Vitamin D 40 IU 20%
Calcium 113 mg 11%
Magnesium 10 mg 3%
Potassium 143 mg 3%

Vitamins D and K are essential for bone health.

Iodine is a mineral essential for thyroid function.

Vitamin B12 and riboflavin are necessary for cardiovascular health and energy production, and B12 is difficult to get outside of animal products or else as supplemental pills.

Biotin and pantothenic acid are B vitamins important for energy production.

Vitamin A is critical for immune function.
Potassium and magnesium are for cardiovascular health.
Selenium is a cancer-preventive trace mineral.
Thiamine is a B-vitamin important for cognitive function, especially memory.

1. It contains an electronic speed controller for powering the purpose-built motor. Speed is adjustable from about 8,000 rpm to 14,000 rpm. This is great for small farmers because it allows one to easily adjust for thicker or thinner cream, and a higher or lower percentage fat in the skim milk.
2. It is designed for use on farms where power line voltage can be unsteady. The controller will tolerate voltage swings from 70 to 150 volts while maintaining a very constant speed. The Novo cream separator is very tolerant of input voltage variations.
3. Unlike the electric motors used in other cream separators (universal motors like those used in most hand tools), this motor has no brushes, and no electrical current flowing in the part of the motor that rotates. This eliminates nearly all possibility of electrical shock and it dramatically increases the durability of the motor.
4. Most separator motors have a life of about 500 hours or much less if moisture gets in them. This new motor will have an almost unlimited life; only the bearings will eventually wear out.
5. The internal cone pieces are made of stainless steel, and the Novo is very easy to disassemble and clean. If any part of your separator should break or go missing, we can supply parts often without charge.

This innovative cream separator is ideal for people with goats, cows, or sheep on a small farm. The adjustable-speed motor improves the separation process, and all parts of this separator are dishwasher safe.

The continuous-duty rated Novo cream separator will separate 80 liters of milk and cream per hour, and is easy to assemble and use. Whole milk, cream, butter and buttermilk are best when they are fresh, and this new separator will add value to your small farm.