Cream

Heavy cream is indispensable for many traditional white sauces as well as nouvelle cuisine sauces thickened with reduced cream. It is an extremely stable emulsion that can be boiled and reduced to almost any consistency. Unlike milk, which must be stabilized with emulsifiers such as flour, hydrocolloids, or egg yolks, heavy cream will not break unless it is boiled without stirring or is overreduced. Heavy cream contains about 58 percent water, 35 to 37 percent fat, 3 percent carbohydrates, and a small percentage of ash and various minerals. Don’t substitute milk, half and half, or light cream for heavy cream.