Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Homemade Sour Cream

The first "cheese" of 2018!!!  :)

I made a "cream cheese" the other day. This recipe is so easy, anyone can make it. I mentioned in 2017, it does NOT taste like any cream cheese that my palate is used to! I.e. Philadelphia-style cream cheese. I can't recreate that cream cheese because it has questionable additives to make it sweet. But I did try to recreate it last year, without success...I won't be giving up though. So in the mean time, this "cream cheese" recipe will now be called a sour cream recipe!

Sour Cream
(makes about 500g)


- 1 liter of whole milk
- 1/2 cup heavy cream (35%)
- 1/8 tsp Calcium Chloride mixed into 1/8 cup cool, filtered water
- 1/4 tsp buttermilk culture
- 1 drop double strength rennet mixed into 1/8 cup cool, filtered water


1. Heat the milk, cream and Calcium Chloride slowly in a large pot to 86F, mixing to make sure it doesn't burn or stick to the pot.

2. Take off the heat, add the culture and let it sit covered for 3 minutes, then stir well for one minute, but slowly.

3. Add the rennet and stir well, but slowly for no more than a minute (more than that and it stops working it's magic to make your curd).

4. Cover the pot and let it sit overnight at room temperature (12-15 hours). I checked mine at 10pm after 10 hours and it wasn't done, so I let it sit overnight, a total of about 20 hours and it was fine.

5. Check your sour cream. If you see it pulling away from the sides of the pot, it's ready to be drained. If it doesn't look like it's pulling away, gently dip your finger into the curd, if it feels like a good semi-soft tofu, it's ready.

6. Line a colander with cheese cloth and ladle the sour cream into the colander. Let it sit covered for an hour, keeping the whey for other uses or for your plants (they love it!).

7. After an hour, make a hanging set up, like the photo above. This needs to hang and drain another 8 hours.

8. After 8 hours, transfer the sour cream into a container and refrigerate, this will harden it up some. It will be good for about a week to ten days.


MrsDuncanMahogany said...

Delicious!! I keep the whey and give it to the dogs with their food. They LOVE it. :)

Marsha said...

Your commitment to the perfect cream cheese is inspiring. Could you add a touch of coconut palm sugar to make it a bit sweeter? Or would that keep the cultures from working?

Rain said...

Good idea Dianna. I just put all the whey into my lemon tree pot, it's looking a little sad lately!

Rain said...

Thanks Marsha :) I don't think it would keep the cultures from working if I add it at the right time...I'll have to look into that. I could always do a 1/2 batch, sweeten the milk first and see what happens, thanks for the idea!

Plowing Through Life (Martha) said...

No matter what you call it, it looks delicious. So creamy that I thought it was ice cream in that image!

Michael said...

I'd love to say I will try this but chances are I won't but I do love the sound of it, if that counts? :)

Rain said...

Ha! It does look like ice cream Martha! Imagine a REAL sour cream that you tasted as a kid, that's what it's like! :)

Rain said...

It's true Michael, it's the thought that counts lol! :)

Magic Love Crow said...

Very yummy! Now all I need is mom's homemade perogies to go along with your sour cream!!! LOL!

Rain said...

Hi Magic Love Crow :) Oh, your perogies comment just got my mouth watering! I used to go to a Jewish deli in Montreal so many times for perogies with caramelized onions...LOADED with sour cream! Yum! :)

Guillaume said...

Yummy sour cream. Check my blog tomorrow, there will be a post about cheese.

Connie said...

This is all just amazing to me . . . I can not imagine how wonderful it tastes. Thank you for being such a sweet blogging sister and always visiting and leaving such lovely comments. Here's wishing you a marvelous day . . . filled with love and laughter :)
Connie :)

baili said...

this is so inviting!!!
you are queen of all skills :)