Dairy Thing

Saucy, Is Half & Half actually 50/50?

About. Milk comes in non-fat, 1%, 2%, or Whole (at least 3.25% butterfat by law, but usually no more than 5%). Cream is 30-40% butterfat. Half & Half is 10.5-18% fat by volume depending on where you purchase it; laws and regulations vary from state to state. Even on the low end of butterfat, the equation 1 + 30 ÷ 2 = 15.5%, makes the label Half & Half true enough.

But it isn’t like there are giant cartons, tanks or trucks of milk and cream that get mixed together at the dairy, all incoming milk is put through a centrifuge that separates the cream from the milk. All denominations of milk, Half & Half, coffee cream, light cream, whipping cream and heavy cream are mixed to exact specifications. For centuries leading up to the mid-19th century cream was only cream and was obtained by placing milk in shallow pans and waiting 19 to 24 hours for the cream to rise, a process called creaming.

In the 1860s Antonin Prandtl invented the first dairy centrifuge but it wasn’t until 1877 that Swedish engineer Carl Gustaf Patrik de Laval perfected a continuous centrifuge that made it economically affordable for smaller dairies to mechanically separate the cream from the milk. Less time spent on separating the milk, means more time can be spent milking, herds can be larger. Danes, Dutch and Wisconsinites quickly adapt this new technology and quickly dominate the butter industry, an advantage that lasts over 100 years. Modern centrifuges spin at 5400 revolutions per minute, making it possible to concoct a cream that contains more butterfat than Bossie herself put into her milk.

There isn’t an exact date for the invention of Half & Half. Nor does there seem to be a specific inventor/innovator. And it appears to be a product made distinctly for coffee. Heavy cream has a way of clotting in acidic coffee. Despite our agrarian beginnings, milk was not always available in urban markets until Gail Borden (a dude) invented sweetened condensed milk in the mid 1800s, at about 8-10% butterfat and sweetened, shelf-stable and pasteurized, the dairy product was a favorite addition to coffee for decades. Half & Half is a similar less sweet, pourable beverage for coffee.

There is no real reason to make your own Half & Half at home: A quick survey of cookbooks finds almost all recipes will list Half & Half as an ingredient - instead of ½ cup cream, ½ cup milk. Well that and buying a carton of Half & Half is cheaper. You can save about a buck a quart, most likely because there is less of the expensive butterfat in the grocery store versions than buying milk and cream and mixing your own.