About Whipping Cream.
WHIP-CHURN.
Have the cream very cold. Put it in a bowl or pail, and set this dish in a pan of cold water,—ice water if possible. Have a large bowl or pan set in another pan of ice water. Place the whip-churn in the cream, tipping a little to one side, that the air and cream may be forced through the holes in the bottom of the churn. Draw the dasher up about one third the length of the cylinder; then press down. Let the upward stroke be light, and the downward stroke hard. If you will count time in this way: one, two; one, two,—it will insure a regular stroke, which is important.
When the bowl is full of froth, skim it off into the larger bowl, being careful not to skim too near the liquid cream. A little of the froth will become liquid, but this can be poured back into the bowl and whipped again.
The cream must be neither too thick nor too thin. If too thick, thin it with milk. When cream is too thick for whipping, the bubbles will be very small and the cream will hardly double in volume. This kind of cream makes most desserts too rich. When the cream is too thin, the bubbles will be large and clear, and will break when touched. Such cream as is sold at creameries as thick or heavy cream, and costs from fifty to eighty cents a quart,—depending on the locality,—will require a pint of milk to a pint of cream. The thin cream sold at the creameries is often too poor to be whipped.
The whip-churn is a tin cylinder, perforated on the bottom and sides, in which a dasher of tin, also perforated, can be easily moved up and down. When this churn is placed in a bowl of cream and the dasher is worked, air is forced through the cream, causing it to froth.
Good cream may be frothed with a whisk, or with an egg-beater, but the whip-churn described above is, to my mind, the most satisfactory for this work.