Remember … it's ok to eat. While a dish with split cream may not look as nice it's certainly NOT a reason to throw it out! You could also stir through a little cornflour/water slurry.
Once a sauce has curdled, it can be very difficult to return proteins to their original state. And while it's perfectly safe to eat sauces that have curdled, it's not especially appetizing. Here are a few strategies to combat curdling: If a dairy-based sauce curdles, immediately halt the cooking process.
Many sauce and soup recipes need to be reduced and thickened, which means gently simmering to achieve the desired consistency. With sauces and soups that contain milk, boiling or simmering can cause the milk to curdle. While curdled milk is safe to eat, it is not particularly appetizing.
Typically as cream ages, the bacteria in the dairy will eat the sugars and produce lactic acid. As the lactic acid builds up, the pH of your cream will decrease and the cream will eventually curdle on its own. With the addition of heat, this process will be accelerated!
Curdling is caused by denaturing proteins, but there are a few different scenarios that can cause this to happen while cooking. High temperatures, high acidity, and too much salt can all cause your cream to curdle.
What you identify as "curdling" could just be separation of the cream fats. Are you storing it in the door of your refrigerator? As you open/close the door to get out food it's subject to a lot of temperature fluctuations. You could try storing it in the back, where it will stay colder.
If you detect a sour smell, especially after the expiration date, the whipping cream has curdled and thickened. At this point, there's nothing to do but throw the cream out.
If you use milk to make sauces and custards, occasionally you'll be unpleasantly surprised by a pan full of hot, curdled milk. It's still perfectly edible, though the texture and appearance may not be quite what you were looking for, and you can prevent it or fix it with a couple of easy steps.
One question that comes to our mind is that “is it safe to eat the curdled milk?”, and the answer is definitely “yes”. But, many hesitate to do it or rather dislike its taste.
Adding a small spoonful of flour thickens and bonds the separated sauce. A little lemon juice, while acidic, may actually help you bring a curdled sauce back together. Pour in just a splash (maybe 1/2 teaspoon) and immediately start whisking the sauce as vigorously as possible.
This is an easy one, because the fat content of heavy cream is so high that you can heat it, boil it, and even reduce it to your heart's content. It won't break, or separate. But do be aware that high acid additions — like citrus, wine, or tomatoes for example — might curdle it a bit.
A small sip of spoiled milk is unlikely to cause symptoms beyond a bad taste. Drinking larger amounts of spoiled milk can cause stomach distress resulting in abdominal cramping, vomiting and diarrhea (like a food-borne illness). In most cases, symptoms caused by drinking spoiled milk resolve within 12-24 hours.
verb (used with or without object),cur·dled, cur·dling. to change into curd; coagulate; congeal. to spoil; turn sour.
But curdled milk isn't always a bad thing. Although it sometimes signifies spoilage, it can also be a method of producing more delicious food, like cheese. Milk curdles because of a simple chemical reaction that can be set into place for a variety of reasons.
If the lumps are hard or grainy, this is a sign that the cream has started to spoil and should be discarded. Heavy cream should also be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator and should be used within a few days of opening. If the cream smells sour or off, it should not be used.
Heavy cream (aka heavy whipping cream) contains between 36 and 40 percent milkfat and is thicker than light cream, whipping cream, half-and-half, whole milk, and evaporated milk. Heavy cream's high-fat content means that it won't curdle when heated, and is the best choice for whipping into stiff peaks.
When pH levels drop in milk, it turns acidic and milk protein (casein and others) molecules attract one another to form "curdles" or lumps. These lumps then float on the surface of the solution. The lumps are formed faster at warmer temperatures.
Don't boil milk.
Milk can curdle if you heat it up too quickly, so be careful. If you want to avoid lumps, make sure not to bring your milk to a boil. Heating it too quickly can result in curdling. Instead, heat the milk gently and gradually over medium-low flame until it begins to steam.
The bacteria are what make the milk go bad. Not only do they sour the milk product to produce undesirable flavors, but they can also curdle it so the consistency will not be right for your recipes. Cream that has soured will have a different amount of acidity, which may result in separated sauces, etc.
In curdling, the pH of the milk decreases and becomes more acidic. Independently floating casein molecules attract one another, forming "curdles" that float in a translucent whey. At warmer temperatures, the clumping reaction occurs more quickly than at colder temperature.