The Big Debate: Jam or cream first on your scones?

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Matt Panter: Cream first and plenty of it

I’ve been, potentially, taking my life into my own hands for 40-plus years.

Walking down a Wolverhampton street with a placard around my neck declaring admiration for my beloved Baggies would receive less critical glances. On my many trips to Cornwall, when I have ordered a cream tea, I’ve been getting it all wrong, apparently, by putting the cream on the scone first, before jam.

I am clearly, therefore, Team Devon despite my love for Mevagissey, Fowey, Padstow and all. And, quite frankly, I just don’t understand how your cream team construction can be any different than the Devon way.

I was stunned when everyone at Team Weekend seemed to consider me strange for plonking the cream on first. I was even more shocked to hear the late Queen agreed with my colleagues. They are all wrong. The clotted cream, for me, acts like the butter on a sandwich – you simply have to spread it on – in great quantity – first.

When you go to a cafe, the quantity of cream always outweighs the little pot of jam. So you go to town with dressing that scone with cream and then stick a dollop of jam on the top. It’s not rocket science. A layer of jam underneath cream simply gets lost. A waste. Try my way, you’ll never look back.

And don’t forget to ask for a scone, rhyming with gone, not bone. But that’s a whole other debate.

Vicki Jones: The Queen knew best

Matt, I’m sorry, you’re just wrong! Team Cornwall all the way in my family! As a frequent visitor to Cornwall throughout my childhood, firmly at the top of our to-do list is a cream tea and I would never have the cream first! As an adult, a cream tea is a popular family treat wherever we are, and my kids are jam first too!

A lovely dollop of jam covering the scone and then an equally lovely dollop of clotted cream nestled in the middle – delicious!

I’m sure the other way is equally as tasty, but how can you spread the jam on top of the cream? It just doesn’t work, it gets all mixed in and aesthetically just doesn’t look as tempting in my opinion.

And if you spread cream directly onto a warm scone, it melts and you end up with a sloppy mess! Nobody needs that! Jam first ensures that your cream stays as it was intended!

Fans of the Devon way suggest it should be cream first, as you would with a sandwich, having the dairy before the filling. But if you treat your scone as a sandwich the pleasure is surely over much quicker?! A cream tea is something to be savoured!

Numerous surveys have been carried out and the Cornish way usually edges it. And as Matt said, a bit of Googling reveals that our much-loved late monarch was a fan of jam first, then cream, and if it was good enough for Queen Elizabeth, it is good enough for me!