By Chef

Heavy whipping cream substitute

The Spruce Eats: What Is Whipped Cream? Whipped cream is one of those fantastically delicious things that takes a dessert or drink from heavy whipping cream substitute to great. Lindsey Goodwin is a food writer and tea consultant with more than 12 years of experience exploring tea production and culture.

Whipped cream is heavy cream that has been beaten until it is light and fluffy. Perhaps more than anything else, what makes whipped cream unique is its texture. It forms soft, light peaks that are higher than many dairy products. For example, whole milk CAN create foam when whipped, but it doesn’t hold up as long or form as strong of peaks because its fat content is so much lower. The nitrous oxide actually ‘whips’ the cream as it comes out of the can, so it makes fresh whipped cream on the spot.

Whipped cream is at its very best when it is made with fresh cream, and the fresher the cream, the better it tastes. Buying it in a can makes it less likely that it will be fresh, and thus less likely that it will be awesome. Canned whipped cream often contains added ingredients, such as preservatives, artificial flavors, and stabilizers, so it’s not as natural as homemade whipped cream. Worse yet, it can have a nasty, metallic taste if it is heavily stabilized and not very fresh. And, finally, since it is made with pressurized gas rather than a stronger whipping action, it tends to ‘go flat’ and dissolve back into liquid much faster than real whipped cream, making it pretty much impossible to use if you want to prepare a dish in advance or eat leftovers that don’t look terrible.

So, as you can see, homemade whipped cream really is better! I own one and it’s more useful than you might guess. You can use it to make all kinds of foams and such. Now that you know all about canned whipped cream, I probably don’t need to convince you of the inferiority of ‘whipped topping’ but if you feel like being a little horrified, read on! These products are usually sold in the refrigerator or freezer section of grocery stores in large, plastic tubs.