How to Substitute Cream for Milk in a Soup

Substituting cream for milk will result in a thicker soup.

Many cooking processes -- especially baking -- call for precision and accuracy. However, when making most soups, you can add, change, remove or replace many ingredients with little hesitation. This is especially true of ingredients that are very similar in flavor and consistency, such as milk and cream. While adding cream to your soup instead of milk will make the final product thicker and richer, it will not significantly change the essence and flavor of the soup.

Instructions

1. Determine the exact number of cups of milk you wish to replace with cream in the recipe. This is important only if you are following a precise recipe or if your soup will contain butter. Otherwise, you can simply add the cream to taste.

2. Reduce the butter in the soup -- if any and if possible -- by 1/3 to 1/4 cup for each cup of milk you are replacing with cream. This will not be necessary in most soup recipes, which do not contain butter. If you are making a roux with the butter or otherwise using it as part of another procedure, such as sauteing onions in butter, do not reduce the amount of butter in the recipe.

3. Add the cream to the soup at the same time as you would have added the milk. Add approximately the same amount of cream as milk in the recipe, but taste the soup frequently as you add the cream to make sure you do not make it too rich for your liking.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are adding the cream for extra richness of flavor but do not want to thicken the soup significantly, replace only half of the milk with cream. For example, use 1/2 cup of cream and 1/2 cup of milk in a recipe that calls for 1 cup of milk.

References

• The Nest: Cooking Q&A: Substitutes For Cream?
• That's My Home: Food Substitutions

Resources

• Food Network: Soup Recipes