Phew. What a day. For homemade sour cream.
Do you ever have those days? Those days when you sit down with aching feet, burning eyes, an uncompleted to-do list, and an unfolded pile of laundry the size of Mount Kilimanjaro?
Good. I thought I was alone in this world. Glad to see I'm in good company here.
Despite the aching feet, burning eyes, and giant list and laundry pile, here I am. Here to share. Here to write. Here to document. Because something as good as homemade sour cream requires documentation. It's my obligation to mankind to share.
One of my favorite parts about the ‘agrarian', ‘from scratch' lifestyle is learning how to do things that I didn't before. I didn't grow up in a traditional foods household. I never made my own bread or (good heavens) brewed my own kombucha. All of that came much later in life, years after getting married. And somewhere in the trail of this lifestyle, I began to learn. I first learned how to bake bread. And then, I learned how to preserve and can. Later came the gardening. And even later came the from-scratch cooking.
Since moving the farm last year and acquiring our meat and dairy animals, that from-scratch cooking has even gone a step further. After all, we're given the raw product from the animals and it's up to us to make something of it.
Meat turns to supper. And delicious bone broths.
Vegetables turn to ferments. And side dishes.
Milk turns to butter. Ghee. Pig feed. Cheese. Kefir.
And homemade sour cream.
I'm sort of embarrassed that it's even taken me so long to share this wonderfulness with you because frankly, it's easier than making a cup of tea – requiring far less mental energy than it's taken you to read this post thus far (isn't that good news? our brains are tired after all, remember? see line #1)
It's raw. It's cultured. It's fresh from the farm, baby.
Homemade Sour Cream
You will need:
– 1/2 cup sour cream (from previous batch or from the best organic, additive-free sour cream you can find!)
– 1 quart fresh cream (from your dairy cow or the very best organic, none-ultra-pasteurized, additive-free cream you can find!)
Ladies and gentlemen, meet the players in this game. Previous culture:
And cream. Sweet, sweet, cream. How I desire to bathe in your goodness:
Step One: Pour the cream into a glass jar.
Step Two: Add the sour cream.
Step Three: Shake it like a salt shaker, baby. Or like you're trying to combine the sour cream and the cream. Either one.
Step Four: Put a lid on the jar and let it sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours or until cultured (aka: soured) to your likeness. I usually let mine go for 24 hours.
YES, leave it at room temperature. The cultures need warmth to work.
NO, you're not going to die from leaving it out on the counter.
Just do it. Life's too short to live in fear of leaving dairy products out on the counter.
Step Five: Refrigerate. Consume. On nachos. Or eggs. Or potatoes. Or taco soup. Or whatever delicious recipes it is that you have planned.
See? Isn't it fun to learn how to do new things? 60 years ago I bet everyone was culturing their own sour cream. Yet here we are, totally confused at the process – thinking it's beyond our grasp to accomplish – even though active participation time is about 4.2934 seconds. I'm here, my friends, to tell you that you CAN do it! And the result is fresh sour cream, free of additives and thickeners that most store-bought varieties contain. The result is a beautiful sense of accomplishment and a new empowerment from learning.
The result is happiness, even amongst the dirty laundry pile and the weariness of a hard days work.
I can sit down in peace for the night, regardless. Because today – cream has been soured. And that's good enough for me.
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As usual, you make it very easy to follow in your footsteps! Thank you!
Oh perfect! Thanks! Now, if you share how to make cottage cheese, I will virtually kiss your feet!
I’ll work on it, Jessica! No feet kissing required 😉
It’s simple! Take a gallon or half gallon of milk add three-five tablespoons of lemon juice and heat up on stove to 200° stirring only once to combine the juice and milk. Once to 200°,cut an
‘ X’ in the mixture and let it cool down to room temp and don’t disturb. While it’s cooling you want to line a colander with doubled over musilin or cheesecloth and place securely in sink (you won’t want to keep this whey because the lemon juice is overpowering) . Take your cooled cheese and gently repeat the ‘ X’ motion in the pot to develop smaller curds, pour into lined colander. You need to rinse these curds with cold water a few times due to the lemon juice. Once rinsed let drain well then place into a container with air tight lid with a 1/3 C fresh milk and 1/2 tsp salt for a half gallon batch or 2/3 C fresh milk and 1 tsp salt for a one gallon batch.
I totally forgot! You will want to use soured milk, NOT FRESH milk! Not the kind that’s curdling in the container but the kind that is sour to taste and smells just over the hill.
Could you use yogurt instead of commercial sour cream for the starter culture, the first time you make it?
Nope. Won’t culture with the right bacteria!
That’s not true. I’ve had to use the pasteurized cream many times, due to the sheer price of the raw! It cultures just fine. Not raw, but still pesticide- and additive-free!
Whoops, wrong reply!
You can if you want to make yogurt 😉
I LOVE this!! I have made my own yogurt plenty of times but never thought of making sour cream (well, I never use it). I just found your blog, somehow (oh—Mighty Nest giveaway!) and love it.
Do you know if you can use the organic ultra pasteurized cream? Good cream is hard to find around here.
Ultra-pasteurized cream won’t work. It’s too dead to culture. Bummer, I know!
That’s not true. I’ve had to use the pasteurized cream many times, due to the sheer price of the raw! It cultures just fine. Not raw, but still pesticide- and additive-free!
There is a difference between “pasteurized” and “ultra-pasteurized.” I’ve tried making ricotta cheese and paneer cheese from “ultra-pasteurized” and “ultra high temperature pasteurized” milk (not sure of the difference between those two) and it will not separate into curds and whey. Not sure how this applies to sour cream but I just wanted to point out that plain pasteurized is not the same as ultra pasteurized. FYI, the shelf stable milk that doesn’t need to be refrigerated is ultra pasteurized.
Love, love, love, love 🙂
I learned a quicker and I’m sure not so healthful trick when we lived in China and couldn’t buy sour cream. 1 cup of heavy cream (pasteurized works fine in this case) and 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar. Stir it up, in two minutes you have a perfect substitute for sour cream. Again, not quite the same as the real stuff and you miss the healthy bacteria, but it works great in a pinch. And when you can’t get your hands on sour cream as a starter.
Your above recipe is called buttermilk. 🙂
We use Greek yogurt…husband’s not a sour cream fan butt he’ll do yogurt. Go figure! I wonder if he’d like homemade better….must find out!!
We use a different dairy culture to achieve our sour cream goodness…..1/4 c. Kefir to 1 pint raw cream. Stir and let it culture on the counter for 24 hours. Got these instructions from the GAPS book. Drizzle the results with some raw, local honey and it is taste-bud (and probiotic!) heaven!
I use Kefir to make sour cream as well. Use kefir for all kinds of things. Smoothie
and many more food prod.
How long will this keep after its been soured?
About the same as store-bought sour cream – one to two weeks.
We’ve also allowed clean raw milk to sit and culture…without an added culture… Can skim cream to either use as sour cream or make into cultured butter. If it is done correctly, it will taste wonderfully sweet/sour without funky flavors/bitterness/off ness. Cottage cheese can also be done simply without a culture. Pour the skim milk into gallon glass jars (easiest to see it clabber.) once clobbered – varies w weather – but mine takes 1-3 days- pour it into a large pan. Heat until 116-120 until u see the curds separating. Strain, rinse, and use. This is a lost art!! If it takes longer than a few days it is probably not going to clabbers. Sometimes you get a cow whose milk won’t set. I think it has to do w the gut health of the cow and not having the right good bacteria. We learned this from a neighbor who recently turned 89! Our amish friends use this same method!
I like the keifer idea.
Would this work with raw whole milk instead of cream? It is all I can find.
Thanks!
I don’t think that it would. But it may be worth a try!
We get raw milk, but it’s hard to find raw cream (our farmer does not have a separator). Do you just scoop the cream from the top of your milk? If so, do you worry about it being 100% cream? Thank you.
I do just scoop from the top of the milk. I always leave about an inch of cream on the top, so I’m not too worried about getting 100% cream.
We didn’t have enough raw milk cream to use that, so I used heavy cream from a local dairy. It was pasteurized, but not ultra-pasteurized. We used Daisy brand sour cream from the store (since it is made without additives or preservatives). We made it at night, let it sit for 24 hours, but found it still not to have thickened up. So I stirred it and left it out still. I just checked it (12 hours since stirring it last night) and it is starting to thicken up finally. Not quite as thick as store-bought sour cream, but getting there.
So questions:
1) How long can I let it sit out for without starting to worry? It has been in the mid-70’s here (with nights down in the upper 40’s) the last couple days, and since my kitchen window is open that’s likely about the temperature this has been sitting out at.
2) I’m not detecting that distinctive sour cream tang aroma yet? Will I? Is this a sign it isn’t working?
Thanks for the help!
It should be fine. It’ll set more once it’s cool in the refrigerator!
I have a jar sitting on my counter for just under 12 hours now and I am beside myself with excitement!
I won’t lie, I dunked my finger in a couple hours ago. But it tasted like it was on the right path! Even though I second guess the term “cream” since when I think cream I think table cream and 35% as whipping cream. So I didn’t get the good stuff, because I second guess too much. Either way it’s working!!
Thank you for the simple recipe! I can’t wait to make potatoes tomorrow just to try it!
Glad it turned out for you!
I have just made my second batch of yogurt and that made me over the top excited. Then I was mildly wondering if I could make sour cream..and there was this post just like that. YAY. love your blog and your writing style. And that new kitchen. O beauty…
How long does the sour cream last for if you are using raw milk?
Love your style of writing! You made me giggle. This looks like exactly What I was looking for. I don’t have (good) sour cream on hand so I’m using a culture I purchased. It is a clump…I tried getting it to incorporate….maybe after it has been in the cream for awhile I will try again.
But, my next attempt will be this recipe you have shared. If mine doesn’t turn out I will get a batch from the co-op to start my own.
Thank you