Creaming is used to refer to several different culinary processes. In baking, it is the blending of ingredients with a softened form of a solid fat. When a dish is described as being "creamed", it may mean that it has been poached in milk, cream or a similar liquid. "Creaming" can also refer to the separation of cream from milk.

Blending

Creaming, in this sense, is the technique of softening solid fat, like

shortening Shortening is any fat that is a solid at room temperature and used to make crumbly pastry and other food products. Although butter is solid at room temperature and is frequently used in making pastry, the term ''shortening'' seldom refers to b ...

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condimen ...

, into a smooth mass and then blending it with other ingredients. The technique is most often used in making

buttercream Buttercream, also referred to as butter icing or frosting, is used for either filling, coating or decorating cakes. The main ingredients are butter and some type of sugar. Buttercream is commonly flavored with vanilla. Other common flavors a ...

, cake batter or cookie

dough Dough is a thick, malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops. Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes yeast or other leavenin ...

. The dry ingredients are mixed or beaten with the softened fat until it becomes light and fluffy and increased in volume, due to the incorporation of tiny air bubbles. These air bubbles, locked into the semi-solid fat, remain in the final batter and expand as the item is baked, serving as a form of

leavening agent In cooking, a leavening agent () or raising agent, also called a leaven () or leavener, is any one of a number of substances used in doughs and batters that cause a foaming action (gas bubbles) that lightens and softens the mixture. An altern ...

Poaching

Creamed food, in cooking, denotes food that is prepared by slow

simmering Simmering is a food preparation technique by which foods are cooked in hot liquids kept just below the boiling point of water (lower than ) and above poaching temperature (higher than ). To create a steady simmer, a liquid is brought to a boil, ...

poaching Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set a ...

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modula ...

cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

, such as

creamed chipped beef on toast Chipped beef is a form of pressed, salted and dried beef that has been sliced into thin pieces. Some makers smoke the dried beef for more flavor. The modern product consists of small, thin, flexible leaves of partially dried beef, generally sold ...

. Some preparations of "creamed" food substitute water and a starch (often corn starch) for all or some of the milk or cream. This produces a "creamy" texture with no actual cream or milk used.

Creamed corn Creamed corn (which is also known by other names, such as cream style sweet corn) is a type of creamed vegetable dish made by combining pieces of whole sweetcorn with a soupy liquid of milky residue from pulped corn kernels scraped from the cob. ...

uses only the liquid "milk" from mashed corn kernels.

In milk production

Creaming in

production is the process by which

rises to the top of un-

homogenized milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modulating ...

. In this sense, the word is similar to the term " creaming" as it is used in chemistry.

References

* p 557. {{Cooking Techniques Cooking techniques Culinary terminology