Part II Making Clotted Cream

It felt like Christmas, waiting anxiously for the morning to see how my clotted cream would turn out. So, here's what I found: the cream looked perfect, the texture was wonderful, but the milk was slightly sour. It was disappointing, but you always learn a little more about what makes a recipe work by experiencing a few failures. Armed with that slightly cheering thought, I went off to visit the farmer and his wife to tell them what had happened. Oh, said the wife, the milk should have been refrigerated overnight (I had put mine in the larder, which I thought was cool enough). The overnight part has to do with allowing enough time for all the cream to rise to the top. So when I come back to Devon, I'll give it another go.


Meanwhile, I've been enjoying one of the delicacies of Northern Devon-- a scone split in half, topped with clotted cream, a dollop of strawberry jam (Tiptree seems to be the favorite brand), and, if you have them, a few wild strawberries. A poetic combination. Honestly, you could eat 1/2 dozen at a sitting because these aren't the leaden scones I dislike so much in New York. They're light, airy, and only two inches in diameter.



I've also tasted several clotted creams from the area and my favorite is Rodda's Cornish Clotted Cream from Cornwall. It has a thin layer of butter on top of the cream and is made with the high butter fat milk from either Jersey or Guernsey.

As much as I hate leaving this beautiful place, I am so happy to have had my own clotted cream experience.