What are some ways to make whipping cream if I don't have any cream

Question

I have milk evaporated milk, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cornstarch, condensed milk, lemon juice and some others but I need help

Answer 1

Evaporated Milk

You can whip evaporated milk. This was once, at least, one of evaporated milk’s selling points. They showed this a couple of times on the Burns & Allen show, one of whose sponsors was Carnation. Carnation’s tag line for their evaporated milk was The Milk That Whips.

Nestlé's continues to advertise the ability to whip Carnation. Here’s a recipe for Whipped Carnation Evaporated Milk Topping on one of their web sites. Their instructions are:

Pour evaporated milk into small mixer bowl; place beaters into mixture. Freeze for about 30 minutes or until ice crystals form around edge of bowl.

Beat on high speed for 1 minute or until very frothy. Gradually add sugar and vanilla extract; continue beating for 2 minutes or until mixture is stiff.

Pet Milk also advertised whipping their evaporated milk. I have a copy of their 1940 Tempting Low Cost Meals, which has a couple of recipes that use whipped evaporated milk. Their instructions always say to “Chill until icy cold”, and then to…

Whip chilled milk with rotary beater, or electric beater at high speed, until stiff.

I’ve done this, and generally use a handheld rotary beater. You want to be even more careful about making sure the bowl and the beater is cold, but it does work, and makes great chocolate ice cream.

You can find more recipes, both for whipped evaporated milk and other uses in which it is a substitute for cream, in their 1930 Pet Recipes. This book also includes an additional step in the instructions for whipping, on page 38:

METHOD I. Milk prepared this way may be stored in refrigerator for several days and whipped when needed. Place the unopened can of milk in a pan and cover with cold water. Heat to the boiling point. Remove can and chill thoroughly.

METHOD II. To prepare milk for whipping in a few minutes. Pour the necessary quantity of Pet Milk into the top part of a double boiler and heat over boiling water to the scalding point. This will thicken the milk by evaporating some of the water from it. Due to the evaporation of water, a film or glaze of milk solids will form at the surface. Some of this may settle to the bottom. This should not be discarded as it will blend smoothly with the rest during whipping and will aid in stiffening the milk. When the milk has reached the scalding point it should be chilled thoroughly.

I have not tried either of these methods. I suspect—that’s a code phrase for “pure speculation on my part”—they have to do with the rarity of freezers before 1930.

There’s evidence for this in Irma Rombauer’s Joy of Cooking. The following method appears in at least the 1946 and 1943 Joy of Cooking (page 686):

To Beat Evaporated Milk

Place the milk in a double boiler. When it is scalded, add gelatin which has been soaked in cold water, and dissolve it well. Allow one-half teaspoonful of gelatin soaked in two teaspoonfuls of cold water to one and one-fourth cupfuls of scalded evaporated milk. Chill the milk thoroughly, then beat it like cream.

The 1953 Joy of Cooking contains similar instructions, but also adds that it may be easier to just use your refrigerator or freezer:

Substitutes for Whipping Cream

…

IV.

Use evaporated milk. Milk prepared with gelatin holds up longer, but merely chilling it may be more convenient at times. When whipping evaporated milk with an electric beater use medium speed.

Either soak:

½ teaspoon gelatine

in:

2 teaspoons cold water

Scald in a double boiler:

1¼ cups evaporated milk

Add the soaked gelatin. Stir until the gelatin is dissolved. Chill the milk until it is icy cold, then whip it like cream. A small amount of vanilla, caramel, coffee, etc., may be added to the milk to flavor it.

Or, chill evaporated milk for 12 hours. Less time is needed if you place it in a refrigerator tray for about 15 minutes or a few minutes in a freezer. When it is cold you may add a little lemon juice, about ½ teaspoonful to a cupful of milk. This will help to stiffen it. When crystals form around the edges, whip it until stiff.

By the 1964 Joy of Cooking, the gelatin method is gone entirely in favor of refrigeration.

My experience is that recipes made with whipped evaporated milk are less flavorful than whipped cream, so that it works better in recipes such as Chocolate Ice Cream than in recipes like Vanilla Ice Cream.

The difference in experience is odd; I can only describe it as “drier”, as if the whipped evaporated milk is sharpening the other flavors and textures in the dish. For some flavors, such as the chocolate ice cream above, this improves (for me) the ice cream experience. For others, such as the vanilla ice cream above, it is markedly inferior.

I have not used whipped evaporated milk where cream would otherwise be used for any purpose other than ice creams. I have used evaporated milk in sauces where cream might otherwise be used, one of my favorites being curried rice. There, the “sharpening” of the flavors of curry, onion, butter, and other vegetables is pronounced and beneficial.

Sweetened Condensed Milk

I have seen some claims that you can whip condensed milk, too, but all of the examples I’ve found seem to either confuse condensed milk with evaporated milk or combine it with actual cream. I did find one blogger who tried it, and:

While the texture and volume changed, it never quite made it to whipped cream. Unfortunately, I would have to say it doesn’t work.

But if you have evaporated milk, the ability to get it “icy cold”, and a hand or table blender, you should be able to get a very passable replacement for whipping cream.

Answer 2

None of those things can be used as a substitute for whipping cream. A substitute for whipped cream can be made from milk and gelatin, but that requires specialized equipment.

If you need a topping to substitute for whipped cream, you can make a creme Anglaise if something runny is okay, or a hard sauce if you want something thicker, or dulce de leche if you want something fun (particularly for ice cream) and don’t mind spending hours waiting for it. You’ll be able to find plenty of recipes online for any of those. Note that the liquor in hard sauce is not crucial, you can substitute a bit of fruit juice if you prefer.