creams:help

[bluerosebud58]

how do you know what kind of cream to use
when it calls for cream, or heavy cream??

[Gorgo]

I would trek to the dairy section of my local store and pick up some whipping cream, usually just an 8 oz. container is enough for my nefarious purposes. :D

[TheBeerLady]

You'll have several choices in the dairy section, any of which can work. Heavy cream or whipping cream will be the richest and creamiest. Half-and-half also works well, and I know quite a few people that prefer it (especially if they usually drink skim milk - the full-fat cream tastes too fatty to them).

[sprocketjuice]

I'm a fan of drinks with cream/milk in them. I've substituted almost every ingredient below for another on this list at least once.

Cream
Coffee Creamer (flavored and unflavored, liquid and powdered)
Heavy whipping Cream
Heavy whipping Cream/2%milk (pretty much D.I.Y. half and half)
Half and half
Whipped cream (Use a shaker)
Milk
Evaporated milk

This new years eve I created a drink for my guests with heavy cream. Some how I disregarded Murphy's law and and mistakenly concluded that because all the cream was finished, one round would be enough. Having to choose between being eaten alive or finding a substitute, I cracked open the evaporated milk. To my surprise some of the guests liked the evaporated milk version better than the first, many couldn't tell the difference and none said it was worse. Personally, I thought it was good but I'll stick with Heavy Cream because of its versatility. Just a few of my observations about Heavy Cream:
-It's rich so you can use less
-Turn it into half and half with just milk when a recipe calls for it
-Stretch it with milk of you're caught with not much left
-Make your own whipped cream

The biggest downside to heavy cream of course is it's higher calories. The low calorie option would be plain old milk.