Hungry in Berlin

If you’re coming from the States, when it comes to cream, you’re most likely used to sour cream and then the trinity of light-, heavy-, and whipped cream. But when you hit the dairy section of your local German supermarket, you’re usually presented with a baffling array of options. With the chart below, I’ve attempted to shed a ray of light on the German cream situation.

-

 

 

 

 

-

English Name

German Name

Alternative German Names

Fat Content %

© Hungry in Berlin, 2007

-

Information gathered from McGee and a few very helpful German books.

-

 

So, how do you use this chart? Well, first thing to note is that items in italics are of the sour (i.e., not “sweet”) cream variety, meaning that they contain lactic acid culture (Milchsäurebakterien). Second, fat percentages are stated at a standard rate and then at real-world ranges in parenthesis. Third, realize that you are going to have to work with approximations. Even “saure Sahne,” a direct translation of “sour cream,” has a very different fat percentage than its Anglo cousin. In general, as McGee tells us, there are three very general cream levels:

-

 

Type % Fat Uses

Light creams < 30% coffee, fruit, pouring

Heavy creams 30-45% whipping, thickening sauces, soups, etc.

“Plastic” creams > 45% spreading onto breads, pastries, fruit, etc.

-

 

So, when going for what you need in Germany, here’s the trick:

-

 

 

1) think of your needs

2) think of “ranges”

3) choose from the chart accordingly

4) use what’s available to you in that range.

 

-

A few notes:

-

 

Re: Is my cream “süß”? Don’t get tripped up on this appellation. It’s only used to differentiate “normal” from “sour” cream. Thus, “Süßrahm” and “Süßsahne” are both plain ol’ Sahne.

-

 

Re: Crème fraîche – as noted in McGee (p. 29): “In France, crème fraîche may be either “sweet” or cultured with lactic acid bacteria; in the United States, the term always means cultured, tart, thick cream.” Beware of Francophilic Germans and their sweet crème.

-

 

Re: Clotted cream – you may have a hard time finding this fine product of Cornwall and Devonshire (aka “Devon cream”) in Germany. In Berlin, the only place I know that has it for sure is Broken English, which has stores in Charlottenburg and Kreuzberg, but it might be lurking elsewhere. Don’t lose hope, though. There is a Middle Eastern variety of this product available in those parts of Germany blessed with Turkish inhabitants and stores. It usually goes by the name kaymak or kaimaki or by its Afghan name, qymaq. It has a 60 percent fat content and, as The Oxford Companion to Food states, it is a fine substitute.

-

 

Re: Where’s the quark? Although I have included sour cream, crème fraîche, and a few other “tangy” creams in this chart, I intend to write a separate post on yoghurts, quarks, and other fermented milks and creams at a later date.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.