grin! I love this kind of analysis, thank you for challenging my assumptions!
But I’m confused why you’re eating whipped cream rather than plain butter. Given you’re only looking at one dimension (cost per calorie), why not go even cheaper?
Just to spoil the answer—it’s the same as why you might prefer fancy butter to whipped cream, or to cheap butter: the composition is actually different. Cream still has some whey in it, and whipping it just suspends it, where fully churning or overwhipping it separates it out so the remainder is purer fat.
And fancier butter is basically starting with a richer-fat cream, and processing it such that the butterfat is purer than in cheap butter.
In summary: butter is better than whipped cream (for some things)? no whey!
Cream still has some whey in it, and whipping it just suspends it, where fully churning or overwhipping it separates it out so the remainder is purer fat
One interesting thing you can do in order to separate the whey from the fat in cream is (something very much like) freeze-distillation.
There is a cold spot in my refrigerator (not the freezer!) where the ambient temperature is approximately 25 °F. If I put a carton of heavy cream there, in several days the contents will have largely separated—there will be a solid chunk of milkfat, and some liquid whey.
Having drained the whey, I can then beat the milkfat with an electric mixer. This causes the remainder of the whey to separate out (due to centrifugal force); after draining this remnant whey, I am left with butter.
But I’m confused why you’re eating whipped cream rather than plain butter. Given you’re only looking at one dimension (cost per calorie), why not go even cheaper?
Mine is definitely a simplistic analysis, but I’m looking at two dimensions: taste and cost. I’m arguing that since whipped cream is both tastier and cheaper than fancy butter it makes a much better condiment.
Most of the disagreement seems to be over whether whipped cream is actually tastier, which is totally fair.
grin! I love this kind of analysis, thank you for challenging my assumptions!
But I’m confused why you’re eating whipped cream rather than plain butter. Given you’re only looking at one dimension (cost per calorie), why not go even cheaper?
Just to spoil the answer—it’s the same as why you might prefer fancy butter to whipped cream, or to cheap butter: the composition is actually different. Cream still has some whey in it, and whipping it just suspends it, where fully churning or overwhipping it separates it out so the remainder is purer fat.
And fancier butter is basically starting with a richer-fat cream, and processing it such that the butterfat is purer than in cheap butter.
In summary: butter is better than whipped cream (for some things)? no whey!
One interesting thing you can do in order to separate the whey from the fat in cream is (something very much like) freeze-distillation.
There is a cold spot in my refrigerator (not the freezer!) where the ambient temperature is approximately 25 °F. If I put a carton of heavy cream there, in several days the contents will have largely separated—there will be a solid chunk of milkfat, and some liquid whey.
Having drained the whey, I can then beat the milkfat with an electric mixer. This causes the remainder of the whey to separate out (due to centrifugal force); after draining this remnant whey, I am left with butter.
If part of my fridge were below freezing I would find that very frustrating, but it sounds like you’ve figured out how to use it to good effect!
Mine is definitely a simplistic analysis, but I’m looking at two dimensions: taste and cost. I’m arguing that since whipped cream is both tastier and cheaper than fancy butter it makes a much better condiment.
Most of the disagreement seems to be over whether whipped cream is actually tastier, which is totally fair.