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Charis's Post to Topical Discussion Forum:
Half and Half—is it half milk, half cream by weight or by volume? HELP!
Hi, everyone. This is my first time posting. I'm hoping you can help clear up a mystery. I've been wondering how the "equal parts" of Half & Half are measured—by weight or volume. Nobody seems to know, so after much frustration I tried to derive it using hated arithmetic. Here is what I did.
METHODOLOGY:
Going by the label of my half gallon of Half & Half (ingredients: Milk, Cream) and the USDA Nutrient Database, I calculated what the counts would be if it were made by using half whole milk and half light or heavy whipping cream by volume.
RESULTS:
Here's my math (please somebody double-check me):
One half gallon of Half and Half has 63 2-tablespoon servings. That's 126 tablespoons. I converted everything to cups to make it easier. Each cup of fluid has 16 tablespoons (and incidentally 8 fl oz), so the half-gallon container has about 8 cups total. This means each cup of Half and Half has 8 servings.
There are label conventions for rounding. I do not know these, so I guessed.
The label says one serving (2 tbsp) has:
1 g protein
3 g fat
1 g sugars/carbohydrates
4% calcium (or, I extrapolate, 40 mg, based on a DV of 1000mg of calcium)
40 calories
So one cup of Half and Half has
8 g protein
24 g fat
8 g sugars/carbs
32% calcium (320 mg)
320 calories
Now, according to the USDA nutrient database for whole milk (listed as Milk, whole, 3.25% milkfat, with added vitamin D) one cup of milk has about:
8 grams of protein,
8 grams of fat
12 grams carbohydrate
28% calcium (based on a DV of 1000mg of calcium)
149 calories
And one cup of heavy cream (Cream, fluid, heavy whipping) has about:
7 grams of protein
86 grams of fat
7 grams of carbs/sugars
16% calcium
809 calories
And one cup of light cream (Cream, fluid, light whipping) has about:
5 grams of protein
74 grams of fat
7 grams of carbs
17% calcium
698 calories
So if we assume it's measured by volume, a half cup of milk will yield:
4 grams protein
4 grams fat
6 grams carbs
14% calcium
75 calories
And a half cup of light cream will add:
2.5 grams protein
36 grams fat
3.5 grams carbs
8.5 % calcium
349 calories
Which would give you, per cup,
6.5 grams protein
40 grams fat
9.5 grams carbs
22.5 % calcium
424 calories
Which would yield, per 2Tbsp=1/8th cup serving:
1 gram protein (rounded)
5 grams fat
1 grams carbs (rounded)
3% calcium
53 calories
However with heavy cream instead of light, one half cup has:
3.5 grams of protein
43 grams of fat
3.5 grams of carbs/sugars
8% calcium
405 calories
So one half cup heavy cream mixed with one half cup whole milk gives:
7.5 grams protein
47 grams fat
9.5 grams carbs
22% calcium
480 calories
Which will yield per serving:
1 gram protein
6 grams fat
1 gram carbs
3% calcium
60 calories
CONCLUSIONS:
Whole milk combined either with heavy cream or light cream yields the right amount of protein and carbs indicated on the label, but more fat, more calories, and less calcium than the actual label implies for Half & Half. The actual label implies less fat, fewer calories, and more calcium.
Based on this, I conclude that IF the mixture is determined by volume, the milk used is NOT whole milk, but skim or reduced fat or a mysterious combination.
And yet…why do the protein and carbohydrates jive with the label? Since as we know there is more protein and carbohydrate in milk than in cream, wouldn't this go up, too, along with calcium, if a greater proportion of the volume came from the nonfat part of the milk? Unless it's an artifact of rounding…?
Also possibly relevant data: Milk is listed as the first ingredient, and cream the second. Since I THINK according to labeling conventions, ingredients have to be ordered by weight, descending, this implies there is more milk by weight. And since fat floats, cream is lighter than milk. So this would imply the calculation is done by volume.
But: how would they be listed if the weight WERE equivalent?
Is my math sound? My assumptions? My reasoning?
Discuss.
TL;DR: My calculations seem to imply that Half & Half, if measured by volume, is half cream and half something-other-than-regular whole milk. But the results suggest a more complicated answer. So maybe it's not measured by volume, but by weight. But the order of ingredients implies volume. Unless it doesn't. Help?
Single Comment Responding to Above Post
Dude…seriously here…for your own sake…get a life.