I have to admit this week's title is a little weird, Dungeon Meshi Maniacs. Who has ever heard of having leftovers from any type of dessert? Especially a snacking one! And leftover tea is going to be stone cold by now. Nobody wants to drink that. However if there is one thing this slime lives by it is sticking to a shtick and this is a Leftovers week, dang it! Sharp minded DMM's will remember that at the end of last week's update I mentioned we are talking Cream this week. That hasn't changed but what a wormhole of research it turned out to be! So sit back with some now room temperature tea while I take you through dusty tomes all about Cream!
Why talk about cream at all? I admit, it does sound like a rather dull topic. It's a white milk goo. But cream is the basis of so many desserts. Things that are foundational interest me. I want to know more about the bottom building block of any topic and cream is foundational! So let's start with the basics. I'm going to guess you already know the biggest thing about cream. It rises to the top.
Wise words from a wise man and 100% true. Cream is made of all the fat molecules found in milk. When left alone the lite fat molecules will rise and combine above the heavier water molecules. Fun fact, that's also where we have the process of homogenization. That's where you break down the large fat molecules to spread them out all over the milk. Tinier fat molecules are less likely to combine together and float to the top. That's why the milk you buy from the store doesn't have cream at the top. This can help the milk stay shelf stable longer because cream spoils faster. Trust me, I've found this out the hard way numerous times over the years! But it isn't like pasteurization which is necessary for milk production. Merely cosmetic. You aren't going to get sick drinking non-homogenized milk. You are more likely to get an unexpected mouthful of cream!
Okay, okay. I hear you, DMMs. You still want to know how to define cream. We could always take the pornography approach that we know it when we see it. That doesn't satisfy me! As some of you know I am a trained law talking slime. I like to have definitive definitions for things. Luckily the United States Government has got my back! Ever heard of a little something called the Code of Federal Regulation!?
Don't be that way, DMMs. The CFR is really cool! If you ever have a question about a legal definition chances are it's somewhere in the CFR. What we are looking today is 21 CFR 131: Milk and Cream. Yes! It's a whole section that covers what the US government defines as Milk & Cream and all things in between. Legally Cream is "the liquid milk product high in fat separated from milk, which may have been adjusted by adding thereto: Milk, concentrated milk, dry whole milk, skim milk, concentrated skim milk, or nonfat dry milk. Cream contains not less than 18% milkfat" And the righteousness doesn't stop there! Let's say you want Heavy Cream. The CFR say that is cream which contains not less than 36% milkfat. There are definitions for Sour Cream, Evaporated Milk even Eggnog!
Why go to all this trouble for legal definitions? Simple. This protects both the consumer and the producer. The producer knows what they have to shoot for before they can claim they are selling cream. And the consumer can go to bed at night knowing that is actual eggnog in their refrigerator and not, oh I don't know, plaster. Ever hear of the Swill Milk Scandal? During the 1850's New York the demand for milk skyrocketed as the population grew. Problem was there weren't enough cows so no-goodniks sold milk from sick cows mixing plaster into it to make the milk white. But there weren't any government regulations back then so all they got was dirty looks from newspapers. Thankfully the Pure Food and Drug Act passed in 1906. Now we can be pretty sure that supermarket milk has no plaster in it!
I really appreciate that you stuck around till the end of this one, DMMs. I know the technical legal world can seem dry but Jurisprudence is the one aspect of the law that interests me. That's the study of the "how law" and "why law". Like I said, I love to study the bedrock of any field. Next week is a big one, DMMs. My 100th entry in this journey! And it's a doozie. Trust me, you will not want to miss it! So see you in seven days and come hungry!
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