Homemade Sour Cream

Every week we hear awesome stories from our Sustainable Dairy members about what they are doing with their dairy deliveries. Fresh whipped cream, cheeses, kifer; you name it, they’re trying it. When we learned one recipe in particular took only two ingredients, almost no hands-on time, and would replace a processed item we regularly purchased at the store, we knew we had to share it with everyone!

Sour Cream is made by fermenting fresh cream with good bacteria. Due to the bacterial culture, the cream becomes thick and sour. Sour cream you pick up from a grocery store is typically loaded with thickeners, additives, and preservatives that is pervasive in in our food culture. Sour cream you can make at home, alternatively, is SO simple and clean it is almost silly to call it a recipe! It’s more of a tiny tip to sustainable living. Goodbye, Daisy, hello homemade sour cream!

How to Make Sour Cream

• Cream and buttermilk.
• Or cream and lemon juice.
• Or cream and a sour cream starter.
• Or cream and greek yogurt.

  There are actually quite a few different methods to making sour cream, but today we will focus on cream and buttermilk.

You’ll need:

• Mason jar or similar
• 1 cup cream
• 1/4 buttermilk

Add cream and buttermilk to the mason jar, seal, shake well to combine and then leave the sealed container on the counter for 24 hours (or longer for a stronger taste) and then….you’re done! Really, I told you it was too easy!

Refrigerated, this sour cream recipe will keep for 2 weeks (if you can keep from devouring it!)

Why is my sour cream runny?

Homemade sour cream is not as thick as store-bought because there are no artificial thickeners. Even though the consistency is different, you can still use this recipe in baking and cooking. You could add gelatin to the cold cream before leaving it out to culture to help thicken it.

It also may thicken naturally while it’s in the refrigerator.

How to store homemade sour cream:

Store it in a tight covered container, like a mason jar, in the fridge for two-three weeks. That is IF your family doesn’t devour it before that time!

Health benefits of homemade sour cream:

Raw milk is higher in vitamins and minerals like vitamin K, C, A. and naturally contains good bacteria and omega 3’s. It also has CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), which can have immune system benefits and may help fight cancer.

This recipe is full of probiotics. You know how we feel about fermentation. We love getting probiotics in as much as we can from food sources and sour cream is another great way.