How do I make half and half?

Factual Questions
1

Assuming I start with milk and heavy cream, how many parts of each do I use?

Also how many parts of each for light cream?

I’m asking because I really like the unpasturized milk, but need something a little stronger for coffee and would like to make 1/2 and 1/2 from unpasterized milk and pasturized cream (since I don’t know where to get unpasturized cream.

2

That would be half milk and half cream…hence the name.

3

What about the other “half’n’half”? Half lager, and half brown ale? (This is what I assume, and I would never dilute a perfectly good Guinness.)

4

Would that be 1/2 milk and half light cream
or
1/2 milk and 1/2 heavy cream

and what would be the proportion for the other?

5

I don’t know if it’s half milk and half heavy cream or half milk and half light cream but why don’t you just mix whichever of them up to suit your taste? Who cares if it’s the “right” proportions?

6

Sorry, it’s half light cream and half milk. It has a milkfat content of about 10.5% - 18%. If you use heavy cream (> 36% milkfat), you should use about 1/3 cream and 2/3 milk to get about the same milkfat percentage.

7

thanks Q.E.D.

8

Not to imply that Q.E.D. was ever being less than transparently clear… but there’s maybe more to it than that. Whole milk is (nomally) roughly 3.5% - 4% milkfat. I have noticed that the “cream” varieties and how they are labelled varies widely according to region in the US. Here’s what one site says:

http://www.foodsubs.com/Dairyoth.html : Creams vary according to the amount of butterfat they have. Lightest of all is half & half, which is half milk, half cream and weighs in with a butterfat content between 10.5 - 18%. It can’t be whipped, but it’s nice with coffee, or on cereal. Light cream = coffee cream = table cream is richer at 18 - 30% fat, but it still can’t be whipped. Light whipping cream = whipping cream (with a butterfat content of 30 - 36%) and heavy cream = heavy whipping cream (with at least 36% fat) are heavy enough to whip, and aren’t as prone as lower-fat creams to curdling in sauces. The higher the butterfat content, the less beating is required to get whipped cream. Europeans go for even heavier creams, like double cream (with a butterfat content of 42%), extra-thick double cream, and clotted cream = Devonshire cream, which is often spread like butter over scones. Look for clotted cream in large supermarkets, but (perhaps luckily) the double creams are very hard to find…

Here’s another: http://www.webtender.com/db/ingred/260

So, kanicbird, you’ll have to look at the labels of what you get in the dairy case and do the math if you’re determined to be precise.

9

Whoa, postwarp. Sorry, I got distracted midway…

Q.E.D. is absolutely right; per USDA it’s half light cream and half whole milk for 1/2 & 1/2.

10

Commercial half-and-half is homogenized so that the cream distributes evenly throughout. I’m not sure you’ll be successful just pouring the two into the same container. The cream may wind up floating on the milk. You’ll have to experiment to see if you can get it to work.

11

If it floats you could alaways just shake it before using it…