page_title: Clotted cream
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Clotted cream / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Carn Euny fogou The original purpose of fogous, or underground chambers, which are found in West Cornwall is unknown. This one at Carn Euny is a particularly fine example.
context_page_description: Clotted cream is a thick cream made by indirectly heating full-cream cow's milk using steam or a water bath and then leaving it in shallow pans to cool slowly. During this time, the cream content rises to the surface and forms "clots" or "clouts", hence the name. It forms an essential part of a cream tea.
  Although its origin is uncertain, the cream's production is commonly associated with dairy farms in southwest England and in particular the counties of Cornwall and Devon. The current largest commercial producer in the United Kingdom is Rodda's at Scorrier, Redruth, Cornwall, which can produce up to 25 tons of clotted cream a day. In 1998 the term Cornish clotted cream became a Protected Designation of Origin by European Union directive, as long as the milk is produced in Cornwall and the minimum fat content is 55%.
context_section_description: Originally made by farmers to reduce the amount of waste from their milk, clotted cream has become so deep-rooted in the culture of southwest Britain that it is embedded as part of the region's tourist attraction. While there is no doubt of its strong and long association with Cornwall and Devon, it is not clear of its actual antiquity, or more recent development.
  The Oxford Companion to Food follows traditional folklore by suggesting it may have been introduced to Cornwall by Phoenician traders in search of tin. It is similar to kaymak (or kajmak), a Near Eastern delicacy that is made throughout the Middle East, southeast Europe, Iran, Afghanistan, India, and Turkey. A similar clotted cream known as 'urum'(өрөм) is also made in Mongolia.
  Contemporary ancient food experts, noting Strabo's commentaries on Britain have proposed that the early Britons would probably have clotted cream to preserve its freshness.
  More recently, regional archaeologists  have associated the stone fogou (dial. 'fuggy-hole'), or souterrains, found across Atlantic Britain, France, and Ireland as a possible form of "cold store" for dairy production of milk, cream, and cheese in particular. Similar functions are ascribed to the linhay (or 'linney') stone-built form, often used as a dairy in later medieval longhouses in the same regions.
  It has long been disputed whether clotted cream originated in Devon or Cornwall, and which county makes it the best. There is evidence that the monks of Tavistock Abbey were making clotted cream in the early 14th century. After their abbey had been ransacked by Vikings in AD 997, the monks rebuilt it with the help of Ordulf, Earl of Devon. Local workers were drafted in to help with the repairs, and the monks rewarded them with bread, clotted cream, and strawberry preserves.  The 1658 cookery book The Compleat Cook had a recipe for "clouted cream".
  In the 19th century it was regarded as better nourishment than "raw" cream because that cream was liable to go sour and be difficult to digest, causing illness. An article from 1853 calculates that creating clotted cream will produce 25 percent more cream than regular methods. In Devon, it was so common that in the mid-19th century it was used in the formative processes of butter, instead of churning cream or milk. The butter made in this way had a longer lifespan and was free from any negative flavours added by the churning.
  It has long been the practice for local residents in southwest England, or those on holiday, to send small tins or tubs of clotted cream by post to friends and relations in other parts of the British Isles.
caption: A Roman-era Cornish fogou or souterrain
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