Thick sour cream

[Lannie]

I finally did it. I managed to make sour cream that has some body to it! I've been working on this problem for a while, because I hate sour cream that's runny like buttermilk.

This is almost like making cream cheese, but not quite. Here's what I did.

2 quarts cream, set out (covered) to come to room temp.
1 cup fresh cultured buttermilk
2 drops liquid rennet in a small amount of water

Whisk together well and set out on the counter overnight, covered. I left mine out about 18 hours. Then pour into a floursack dishtowel lined colander, tie up the corners and hang for about 3 hours. (I didn't use cheesecloth because I wasn't sure if it would be too thin and just run right through it, so I used a clean dishtowel.)

When it's just barely dripping anymore, untie the towel and place it back in the colander or a large bowl, and scoop out the contents into another large bowl. The middle will still be quite runny, and the outsides will be firm like cream cheese.

Whisk to remove the lumps, and pour (it will be thick) into a container to refrigerate. You'll need a rubber spatula to get it all out of the bowl, unless you can get your whole face in there to lick the bowl clean.

I just sampled this batch and it's so much like store-bought, it's not funny. It's ever-so-slightly grainy (I assume this is from the rennet), but it's really hardly noticeable. Now I have sour cream I can make a sturdy ranch dip with, or pile on top of a baked potato! ;D And the cream wasn't that great - it was thin Holstein cream (no offense to any Holstein people, but my neighbor's Holstein has substandard cream, in my opinion).

Oh, and the finished product filled a 3-pound Daisy sour cream tub, to give you an idea of what you'll end up with.

~Lannie

[mazurzoo]

Lannie, Is the flavor and texture of your sour cream similar to the Daisy Brand? I love the Daisy brand sour cream!

Ya know, something that will take some getting used to is, I use Jersey Milk/cream, its very yellow. Store bought cream is whiter than white. It just might be weird at first.

[Lannie]

Hmmm... does it taste the same as Daisy? No. I think the Daisy (or most of the commercially made sour creams) are blander, and a bit sweeter. This has more "body," and that's the only way I can think of to describe it.

The cream I used was from a Holstein, so it's white. I don't know what color my Bandit-cream will be, but since she's half Jersey, I'm going to assume it will be more yellow. I'd like to try this recipe on the Brown Swiss milk, if I can get the neighbor to turn loose of some! LOL!

By the way, this morning, when I sampled the sour cream yet again <wink> it was almost too firm. Now that it's thoroughly chilled, it really set up. So I'm going to make a wild guess that if you used a thicker Jersey cream, it should maybe only hang for 2 hours, or less.

Oh, boy! More experimenting! (That means more sour cream that will have to be eaten!) ;D

~Lannie

[Deleted]

I think eliminating the rennet would solve the setting up too firm problem. Rennet by nature sets up firm. If you just hang it I should think you would get the same result, without the too firmness.

[Lannie]

Nah, the one time I tried that, it ALL ran out through the cloth. That's why I wanted to try it with rennet, so I'd have a chance at losing some whey and keeping the sour cream. If I don't drain it, I have sour cream that's still mostly cream. No body at all, but it's good to drink.

Anyway, that's how it works for me. You guys might have better luck not using rennet because you have better cream than I do to start with.

~Lannie

[Joann]

My Jersey sour cream and cream cheese are definitely golden. I am happy with this but people do comment; they are careful not to sound critical! and it is delicious.

I make cream cheese the way you have done your sour cream, Lonnie. It is AnnB's recipe, which is posted.

For sour cream, heavy Jersey cream cultured with buttermilk is barely runny at room temp and totally thick after refrigeration.

If you can find a linen napkin rather than cotton tea towel I think you will be even happier with the results.

Joann

[suzorse]

Brown Swiss Cream is white , I made butter with Maries and it was yellow must be that 1/4 angus in her ,her mothers butter was whiter than jerseys but still good trying to get sour cream made right ,daughter eats it like nothing can not keep it in the house, strange child lol
Suzanne

[tabitha]

i use a sour cream culture from dairyconnection.com

it costs so little and gives such beautiful results. i make 2 quarts at a time, and use the slightest dust of the culture powder. this little vial may last 2 years! it also makes good buttermilk.

but i have made it with buttermilk before. gosh our family loves sour cream, i dont know what i would do without it!

[Maryann]

I bought the Piima cream powder from the source listed at the back of Sally Fallon's Nourishing traditions. My kids won't eat it though because its not like store bought! (aaaakkk) So, I'm grateful for this recipe. Do you use store bought buttermilk or your own cultured stuff?

Any way I love it! It has a beautiful flavour and I only used the powder the one time, then keep making more with a teaspoon of the last batch. It sits on the counter for about three days and then goes in the fridge, where it does firm up a little,

Once I left it out with instructions to my hubby to put it in in two days as I was going to Nicaragua fro 2 months.....he forgot and joined us midway through. When we returned it was actually still OK!! Really thick but no mold! Amazing!

Maryann

[Deleted]

Maryann

I too had the "ewww it doesn't look/taste/smell" like store bought reaction from my kids when I first started using raw milk from our cow. The way I got past it was to introduce the raw in small amounts, mixing with store bought, but still putting the mix in the store container until over the course of a few weeks were consuming 100% raw but from a (very thoroughly steralized EVERY time) store container. After the 3rd week, I just got rid of the container and none of them was ever the wiser!



Heather

[Lannie]

Maryanne, I used either store-bought or homemade (from store-bought) cultured buttermilk. Either one works the same.

As an update, I have since stopped using the rennet, and just cultured the cream overnight and drained it and it was fabulous. No graininess at all. I don't know what happened with that one batch I tried first that all ran through the cloth, but maybe it was too cold in the house or something.

Now I'm back to buying dairy products from the store (ICK!), and I really miss my homemade sour cream (and cream cheese and buttermilk and cottage cheese and panir and ... etc...). I found someone else I can get raw milk from while I wait on Bandit, but it's a dairy, with Holsteins, and a bulk tank, so I doubt I'll be getting any cream at all. It makes me sick to pay $3.00 a gallon for skim milk, but I guess it's still cheaper than the store (not counting the gas, of course - they're not real close to us).

I still have a couple of waxed cheddars I made last spring that I'm going to have to crack open here pretty soon and see if they worked. I hope they did!

~Lannie

[Deleted]

I make creme fraiche..similar to this but without rennet. Just use 2tbs buttermilk (cultured) to 1 pint heavy cream....then leave out as you suggest..when thick, refrigerate..very thick, nutty creme fraiche..

awesome on crepes, cereal, slices of any pie, baked potatoes....or straight up on a spoon

Keith

[Jenn]

mazurzoo said:

Lannie, Is the flavor and texture of your sour cream similar to the Daisy Brand? I love the Daisy brand sour cream!

I know someone who makes lots of cheeses. She says anytime she finds a cheese she really likes, she cultures it for future use. If you like the Daisy sour cream, maybe you can use it as a starter?
-Jenn

[mrskk]

Jenn,
How would you go about culturing cheese for future use? If this is a dumb question, please forgive me as I am new to this!
Karen

[Janene]

Umm, as to 'thick' sour cream....I did a 'boo-boo' the other day!

I had some nice clabber, and I put some into the cream.
Was in a hurry, so used the hand-blender to mix it all up. Only blended it for 20 seconds--not very long.
I am silently thinking, this will either turn out OK, or more like butter.
Nope! I got thick, whipped-like sour cream. DH is happy!!! ;D
Janene