Good new alternative to cream in cooking

[Caroline J]

http://blog.doyoueat.com.au/2011/01/product-review-kraft-cream-for-cooking.html

I like the sound of this product- lots of my favourite TMX recipes have LOTS of cream in them, this might work as a lower fat substitute.

[Meagan]

Looks good Caroline

[Katya]

Looks good but I would be wary of the high salt content.

[Zan]

Is it only me but the word Kraft scares me, lol, all I can see are those fake cheese triangle things.

[KarenH]

I'm with you Zan - the word Kraft to me means those flat, plastic-tasting sheets of stuff they call cheese, individually wrapped in more plastic. 

[Meagan]

What are the ingredients?

[Caroline J]

I couldn't find the ingredients on line, will check it out when at the supermarket next.  It's marketed under the Philly brand which is a little confusing...will be interesting to have a good look at the ingredient list.

[debs]

I can help out here...  but beware the ingredients are long and complex 

milk, water, cream, maltodextirin (tapioca), thickener (1450, from maize), salt, vegetable gums (410, 415, 466), gelatine, emulsifier (472e), acidity regulator (339), preservative (200), starter culture, enzymes, 17% milk solids


phew.  i use yoghurt most of the time when a recipe calls for cream but have been thinking of using a combo of cream cheese and milk.  Don't make many creamy dishes so haven't tried it yet.

Deb

[Meagan]

  ok might not be something we will have......... Thanks for posting

[virginiaqda]

I use Evaporated Milk and its yum

[quirkycooking]

I mostly use cashew cream or coconut cream   But I'm not worried about low fat.

[Caroline J]

I don't like that ingredient list, I think I'll stick to cream and substitute light evaporated milk where I can!  Thanks for posting the ingredients, Debs.

[Sonan]

I used to use evap light milk all the time too but found out one of it's ingredients is carrageenan or vegetable gum 407. Investigating this further, there seem to be some concerns. So, I am not at all confident that too much of this is good for us !  Aside from the fact that evap milk is a heavily processed product.
I am thinking of trying Jo's cashew cream as an alternative to cream.

[missgrunge]

Speaking as a dairy farmer's granddaughter, just remember that cream is milk fat suspended in water and is an entirely natural product from beautiful Australian cows.  Everything in moderation! 

As for carrageenan, it's a seaweed-based vegetable gum.  There was a program on SBS a week ago showing a chef harvesting it by hand from a beach in England, boiling it up in his billy, then using the extract like a as a thickener (like a gelatine-substitute) to make a mussell mousse with it.  I guess if you eat seaweed in Japanese food you must be getting the same sort of products as you ingest from carrageenan.

Go Aussie cows!!
Miss G

[Sonan]

It would be great to get the carrageenan straight from a natural source, but I think the problem occurs when they process it ....