DAIRY DIARY: SOUR CREAM PART II

If you want to make sour cream at home, it is not difficult. All you need is a double boiler, a dairy thermometer, a quart glass canning jar with a sterile cover, one quart of heavy, sweet cream and about 3 tablespoons of cultured starter. You could try omitting the starter, but sour wild bacteria may make the resulting product taste bad. Starter for sour cream can be found at cheese- making supply sources, just be sure the acid level is at least 1% for a crisp clean taste. Always pasteurize the cream before adding the starter.

· Put cold water in the bottom of a double boiler. Pour cream in the top; let the bottom touch the water in the lower vessel. Bring the temperature slowly to about 160 degrees Fahrenheit and maintain for ½ hour.
· Cool the cream as quickly as possible by setting the upper pot in ice-water. Have a second pot of ice-water ready and put the pot in that as soon as the first ice melts.
· Pour half the cream into the sterilized canning jar and add the starter. Mix thoroughly and add the remaining cream to within ¾” of the top. Affix cover and shake vigorously only until mixed. Too much shaking will make butter.
· Put jar in warm (70-80 degrees Fahrenheit), draft free place for about 20 hours. You can wrap a towel around the jar to insulate it.
· Lastly and very important, chill the jar for at least 12 hours.

There you have it. Next time I will talk about tantalizing ways to enjoy sour cream.

DAIRY DIARY: SOUR CREAM PART I

Rich, smooth and creamy, with just the right amount of tartness. Yoghurt right? No, I’m talking about sour cream, that delicious condiment many people enjoy on their baked potatoes. But sour cream is much more versatile than that.

My lovely bride is ecstatic about this renowned cultured dairy product eaten with fruit. Sometimes she mixes a little brown sugar in some sour cream and dips fruit in it. Give her blueberry pancakes and she asks for a spoonful of sour cream with it.

Sour cream is easy to make (see Part 2), but today most people purchase it at the market. If you do, make sure it doesn’t contain gelling agents or stabilizers.

While yoghurt is fermented milk, sour cream is fermented cream with high butterfat content, and unlike yoghurt must be re-pasteurized when fermentation is complete. Each uses different bacteria in their making.

Sour cream can be whipped, made into ice-cream, or used in many other ways. It is popular in Viennese and Russian cookery. If you make baked goods such as pancakes or biscuits, you can replace some of the fat with sour cream for an interesting change of flavor.

Next time I will talk about how easy it is to make sour cream, and explain it’s culinary diversity.