What is "cooking cream"?
 

Hi -

First world problem, I know, but I figured someone here might know the answer.

There's an Israeli woman who has a Youtube cooking channel that I watch, and she had a great recipe for baked pasta with spinach in a cheesy tomato cream sauce, which I want to make this week. The recipe calls for שמנת לבישול , which translates as "cooking cream." I have never heard of that term in English, and I'm trying to figure out what product might be equivalent to that in the US.

From doing a Google search on the Hebrew and looking at the pictures, it seems that in Israel this cream has something like 15-18% fat. In the US, all I've ever seen is whipping cream, which appears to have around twice that fat content. I'm thinking that would be too heavy, given the dish will already be pretty cheese-intensive. Is there a better kind of cream to use? Unfortunately, when looking at products on supermarket websites here, none of them seem to give the percentage of fat content.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

https://www.anchorfoodprofessionals....ing-cream.html

https://www.quora.com/What-is-cooking-cream

Realise specific to the US but in Norway you have something called “food cream” - meant to be used in cooking, think 14-15% fat and cannot be whipped. Gives the creaminess with less of a fat feeling. In the UK the equivalent is single cream (vs double cream or whipping cream for whipping). Despite other poster saying the opposite, I would agree with the OP that he’s looking for a lower fat content one.

Mr Google suggests half and half has 10-18%. It’s a rather wide range, but maybe that could work?

Thanks to all for the replies!

Isn't half and half only used for coffee, though? I've never heard of that being used in cooking - but maybe I'm wrong.

I'll have to try Stop & Shop this weekend. My other local NYC supermarkets are pretty questionable in the dairy department; when I've tried to find simpler things like buttermilk they only have maybe one variety. S&S seems to have something called "light cream," but I don't know if that's lighter than half and half or not - they don't give a fat content. Sigh.

In the worst case, I guess I can just test out a small amount of whipping cream and dilute with milk if it's too heavy... first-world problem, as I said. :)

I think that product is exactly what I'm looking for, but I don't think it exists here. I have a friend who's Dutch and cooks a lot, so I'll ask him this weekend what he might recommend. He also would know if there's some niche European grocery store that might have it in stock.

For me, I use single cream for cooking and double cream for eating. I've never found anything in the USA which comes close for either purpose, usually settling on Heavy Whipping Cream, but I don't really like it very much. I tend to go with a non-dairy diet in the USA as I don't like the cream and don't like the cheese. At least that makes it slightly healthier as I contend with the sugar content!

I think sometimes half &half has a sweetner added so check the label.
how much cooking cream is called for--do you think having the wrong thing won't make much difference in the end result. It depends on the purpose of the ingredient...often there are interchangeable options .
and yes...half & half is used for things beyond coffee.

The recipe calls for half a cup/125 mL. That would be blended in with a big can of crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, and a lot of grated cheese. So if need be I guess I could use maybe a quarter cup whipping cream and a quarter cup milk. I don't want the sauce to end up getting too cakey during the baking.

I don't think it will make any difference . Unless you would normally have both on hand, i would pick one and just use that....either whipping cream, whole milk or half&half. None of those options should make anything cakey.
I suggest you pick one and make it....if you think heavy cream makes it too rich....next time use milk. Or if you use milk and want it thicker adjust next time . The cheese will add plenty of fat and thickness so I personally would use milk.

Thanks. I have actually none of those things on hand; all I drink at home is skim milk. So I'll have to pick something up from the store this week regardless.

I would not go to the trouble of using half milk and half cream. Just get half and half which is half milk and half cream hence the title. I agree with others that since it's only 1/2 a cup, it won't matter if the fat% is a bit higher or lower.

Half and half does not have sweeter added - a coffee adder like Mocha Mix or the CoffeeMate additions would.

I'm very flexible with what I add and I've found few detrimental aspects. I like to make vodka penne and I've made it with everything from 1% milk (which I drink at home) but that was a little thin... what worked especially well was Lite Sour Cream (which we use for all things sour cream) - the added tang was a benefit and the thickness of the sour cream actually made it very creamy without a lot of added calories and fat.

When you are baking, strictly sticking to a recipe WRT ingredients or amounts is important. With other cooking, it is not as critical. The purpose is too add a little silkiness and creaminess so yes, just pick up a small carton of cream, milk, or half/half.
BTW--as far as buttermilk, I rarely see more than one or two brands even in the big groceries so I don't think your store is unusual. I never can use a whole carton so I freeze leftover buttermilk in baggies.
Post a pic...the dish sounds really good!!

If the recipe originates from a warmer country w/o much of a dairy industry, the stuff may be canned shelf-stable cream such as this stuff. Cooking cream is sold, in non-shelf stable packaging where I am in 15 & 35% format but I've never seen the stuff (must be for specific ethnic demographics). Seems alcohol and acids are added to prevent curdling (or one could just temper to avoid this happening which is what everyone did in the past). Closest we get is a product called Coffee Cream (18%) which is higher than 10% 1/2 & 1/2 (marketed as Creamo here) and of course lower than whipping/heavy cream.

I've used half and half in cooking a lot, never in coffee (I like warmed skim for that) . Half and Half is what your looking for

:eek: :eek:

My rule has always been single cream for cooking, double cream for desserts.

What you need is crème fraîche. You could use whipping cream with a little lemon juice or vinegar / cider vinegar added. Crème fraîche is very slightly acidic and doesn't curdle or separate when heated, which other creams are prone to do. Crème fraîche is often around 45% fat, but by the sounds of it a half-fat or lower fat version of crème fraîche will do the trick here, if cooked slowly and well mixed, or just use somewhat less than the recipe quantity.

I have prepared cooked sauces with heavy whipping cream (Alfredo), sour cream (enchilada) and half & half (seafood casserole) without curdling issues. I’d say use whichever you have or can easily find. Out here in the wilderness (20 miles to the nearest grocery) one learns to substitute.

Just wonder if you temper the dairy?

Much closer for me, but high fat yogurt substitutes for sour cream, and both will substitute for cream in a pinch.

I will make it even easier for you....technically authentic Alfredo does not have cream....3 ingredients: butter, parm, fettuccine (s & p, of course). :idea:

Not usually.

Yes, I’ve subbed yogurt as well.

I forget where I got that recipe. Definitely had butter & parm & whipping cream. It was very rich (and yummy) but one of those dishes you shouldn’t have more than once a year.

American alfredo is a whole different dish. Similar a number of Italian foods in fact :)

I'd venture to speculate this was because there were ingredients that were readily available and affordable in the new country that presence were not readily available and/or affordable in Italy (or name your ethnic cuisine), as well as the reverse. More so in the past than the past few decades at least in the U.S. Tortillas appear to be a substitute for Chinese spring roll wrappers in Central America

Since Orthodox Jews usually separate milk products from other foods, the cooking cream may not be milk based. You may want to try a store that caters to Orthodox Jews to find what you are looking for.

This has nothing to do with orthodox Jews; it's milk-based.

LOL, ahh typos :) Corrected

Well, I went to the store today and bought a carton of "light cream," which seems promising. I'm going to try to cook this one night this week, depending on how motivated I feel.

Edit: Aaaaaaaannnndddd I forgot to buy the spinach. Argh.

OK - following up; I acquired the misbegotten spinach and made the dish tonight. It came out wonderfully - really tasty, creamy and cheesy with a great tomato flavor. I discovered that I don't have a baking/casserole dish big enough for it so had to bake it in a stainless steel soup pot - not ideal but not a serious problem; just seems to take a bit longer to cook through. I think this will have a definite spot in my winter rotation. Next time I'll probably increase the oven temperature a bit and leave it in a bit longer to try to make the pasta/cheese on top crispy. I was too impatient and hungry tonight to wait for that!

It was also a nice project to take my mind off the world for a while, which is definitely something I need these days.

You should be able to get a Pyrex baking dish pretty cheap. Also, I wouldn't crank up the heat...dishes with cream can separate or curdle. I don't understand why the cheese on top didn't crisp up...was the pan not filled to the top? You could always put it under the broiler for a minute at the end or sprinkle some panko on top.

The soup pot I used was filled mostly to the top. I think part of the problem is that I have a very old, NYC rental apartment oven that sort of does whatever it wants to do... and I also just didn't really want to wait another 10-15 minutes for it to crisp up before eating. Some of the pasta on top was getting crispy, so it was just a matter of time, but eh - couldn't be bothered.

I really do need to drag myself to Stop & Shop at some point, and I know they have Pyrex dishes and stuff like that, so I'll look. Or if I feel really ambitious, and covid doesn't come back with a vengeance, I may make a trip to Bed Bath & Beyond.

I think next time I make it, I want to do it with chorizo or meatballs or something.

Don't stick it under the broiler if you use a Pyrex! I've never cracked one personally but I've heard it's possible.

What's the name of the recipe?

It's essentially a cheesy/creamy baked pasta dish (think baked ziti) with tomato sauce and spinach. No fancy name or anything like that - just easy comfort food.

get an oven thermometers ...they are cheap. You can find out if your oven runs hot or cold and adjust if necessary .

Sorry, thought you got it off the internet where even the simplest recipes have names. It just sounded good.

I did, but it was an Israeli site in Hebrew. It's just like "baked pasta with tomato sauce, cheese, and spinach."

I can appreciate that - I do recall you talking about the translation in your first post. I'm just suffering from recipe fatigue and looking for new ideas. Most of my pasta dishes (and I make many) except for lasagna are stove-top, I don't have much luck with baked dishes, they tend to turn dry on me so I was hoping for some insight. I'm thinking adding the spinach adds some moisture, so I'll try that next time.

This is the link, if it's of interest. If it appeals to you I suppose I could translate it at some point when I have down time (or you could try Google Translate and see if that works):

In many dishes...either sweet or savory, fat and sugar are responsible for a lot of keeping things from tasting dry. Also, keeping a cover on while baking helps.

It's just baked pasta for me that's a problem.

And no need to translate anything, OP, one picture (video) was truly worth 1,000 words.