Clotted cream (sometimes called scalded, clouted, Devonshire or Cornish cream) is a thick cream made by indirectly heating full-cream cow's milk using steam or a water bath and then leaving it in shallow pans to cool slowly. During this time, the cream content rises to the surface and forms 'clots' or 'clouts'.[1] It forms an essential part of a cream tea.

In our family the issue is normally if you heat the cream once or twice. The cornish side say twice.

When I can't get clotted cream (from our British Import store, though some local grocery stores now carry an imported product) I make this as a substitute.

Fill a tea cup with 35% fat cream (whipping cream) and add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Stir and leave in your fridge at least for a day. The cream thickens (curdles) considerably, and dries out the longer you keep it making it even thicker, and sometimes develops the crust and the slightly 'off' smell if you leave it for longer.
I've done this when needing a large quantity (the imported clotted cream is expensive, about $6.00 for a small jar) and it has worked well.

On a related note, when we were kids, I remember our neighbours boiling their farm produced milk in a saucepan to pasteurize it. After cooling, it developed a thick skin on the surface, which the kids raced to skim off into a cup, mix with sugar and eat with relish. I thought it was disgusting, but it was just the cream they were enjoying.

Sorry - sounds icky.

And my grandmother - of Irish heritage - called what seem to be known as scones (like stones) "tea cakes".

The consistency of the lemon juice thickened cream is like that of a swiss merengue, soft and thick and pillowy white. You don't taste the lemon either, though you can if you add more juice, or finely grated lemon rind which I've done for a lemon pound cake topping pressed with berries.
It also holds its shape well like a soft merengue would.

Cranachin, Thin describes it better, Scone as in John or Scone as in Cone.... you decide :), I have friends who say both.

I think Clotted is waaaay more traditional but i dont mind it with whipped cream and always jam on first.

Teacakes to me are a bread bun with currants and spices, split and toasted. In other words, hot cross buns without the cross. Or in northern parlance, jam and marshmallow topped biscuit covered in chocolate. Not so nice toasted.

"The consistency of the lemon juice thickened cream is like that of a swiss merengue, soft and thick and pillowy white."

Then it's nothing like clotted cream. And that sounds like American meringue, not English, which is light and airy with a crisp crust.

About 25, huh? We still have supper at night unless we are going out and I want to impress someone by calling it "out to dinner.">>

there's posh, Carolyn - supper indeed!

anicecupoftea - yes, a tea cake [or a tea treat in Cornwall] is a yeast product, as is a split, whereas a scone [however you pronounce it] is more of a cake/pastry - it's really like a cake made by the rubbing in method, but with far less fat.

and as bilbo says, clotted cream is NOT boiled - it is heated to a low temp [I'm sure that I have read 70C] and then left overnight. and you don't need to eat the crust, you can scrape it off and eat the cream below.

"Supper" is not posh here, annhig. It's countrified and unsophisticated.

"Supper" is not posh here, annhig. It's countrified and unsophisticated>>

ah, now, Carolyn, that was the original meaning here too, but now one might invite friends over for supper [a more casual meal] as opposed to dinner but it probably won't be countrified and unsophisticated.

>>but it probably won't be countrified and unsophisticated.<<

Unless of course it's David Cameron inviting the Brookses, in which case it's <i>entirely</i> impromptu, informal, merely neighbourly and <i>nothing</i> of any importance is discussed at all. Honest, your honour.

Unless of course it's David Cameron inviting the Brookses, in which case it's entirely impromptu, informal, merely neighbourly and nothing of any importance is discussed at all. Honest, your honour.>>

given the recent verdict, Patrick, that's probably actionable.