The $1.99 Trader Joe’s Find So Good I Buy Every Box on the Shelf

Just over a year ago my wife Andrea and I moved to the hills of Oaxaca, Mexico, a beautiful, southern state on the Pacific coast famed for its food and culture. This will be our first Christmas in Mexico, though, and also the first time in our lives we won’t be spending the winter holiday season with our families.

Even here amongst the cacti, agave, and palm trees, the temperature is dropping (with lows in the high ’30s by Christmas!), and we’re craving comfort, familiarity, and the hearty stews, flaky pies, and luxuriously frosted cakes we used to prepare during this time of year in our small apartment in New York City.

Making food for the holidays doesn’t require a lot of fancy ingredients, but one thing we find ourselves needing on an almost weekly basis is heavy cream. Here in Mexico, heavy cream from the supermarket is loaded with preservatives and thickeners, and it has a thick, gummy texture I hate cooking with. So, when Andrea and I were in a Trader Joe’s in Brooklyn this past September and saw—finally!—that the store was carrying its highly seasonal shelf-stable whipping cream again, we didn’t just stock up: we bought every single carton on the shelf.

Why I Love Trader Joe’s Shelf-Stable Whipping Cream

We must have looked like complete lunatics to the person at the register, but we didn’t care; we love Trader Joe’s shelf-stable whipping cream for many reasons. Because it’s gone through Ultra High Temperature (UHT) pasteurization it can sit on your shelf, unrefrigerated, for up to six months.

Buy a few cartons and stick them in your pantry, and you’ll never again find yourself running out in a storm to pick up one of winter cooking’s most essential ingredients. And, making things even easier, each carton is eight fluid ounces—exactly one cup—giving you the amount you need without leaving you with an open carton that can easily get lost (and crusty) in the back of your fridge.

Trader Joe’s shelf-stable whipping cream is also just as easy to use as regular cream because it is regular cream. The only difference, other than the type of pasteurization, is that it contains a small amount of carrageenan, a very common thickener and stabilizer used in many foods.

I notice very little difference in texture between Trader Joe’s shelf-stable whipping cream and regular heavy cream, and essentially no difference in flavor. Simply put the amount you need in the fridge a few hours before you want to use it (it needs to be chilled to whip correctly), and then use it in any recipe that calls for heavy cream in exactly the quantity called for.

The only downside to this shelf-stable whipping cream is that Trader Joe’s only sells it for a few months out of the year. If you want to be sure you won’t have to make a trip out into the snow for a missing ingredient, stock up on it while you can.

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