Making sour cream is one of the easiest things to make! It requires little effort and will create the best tasting sour cream you have ever tasted! The hardest part of this recipe is most likely going to be finding a raw source of milk. This recipe can NOT be made with pasteurized milk of any kind. Raw milk and pasteurized milk are two completely different substances. Why is this? Well heat treated milk (pasteurized), turns milk from a living substance that has plenty of beneficial bacteria, to a lifeless, denatured substance. Raw milk that sits out for 24-48 hours simply sours and is still very safe to eat. If you were to do the same with pasteurized milk, your milk would become rancid and would make you very ill. You can visit your local chapter at the Weston A. Price Foundation to find a good source of raw milk.
Here are the simple steps to show you how to make a raw sour cream.
Take your raw milk out of the refrigerator and notice that the cream has come to the surface. The cream will always be on top and the milk will be on the bottom. Notice in this picture the color change.
Simply spoon off the cream and put in a clean mason jar. The cream will be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. It is okay if you get a little milk in with the cream, it will naturally separate during this process. Note – you can also do this with raw milk that has already soured. Your cream will rise to the top and naturally create a sour cream. Just scoop off the cream that is already soured and you have sour cream. If it isn’t thick enough, you can leave it out to thicken a bit. It will also thicken after you refrigerate it a bit.
Now put a lid on the mason jar leaving it slightly open. Leave at room temperature for 24-48 hours. This time varies because of the weather. The cream will sour faster on warmer days.
After 24-48 hours, smell and taste your cream to make sure it has soured. Also, your sour cream should have thickened up a bit. Once soured, place in refrigerator for a day and it will thicken up even more. A raw sour cream is not going to be as thick as store bought sour cream. Store bought sour cream often has gelatin and thickeners added to them.
That is it! How simple was that? So the next time you want some fresh sour cream, try making it yourself. It is absolutely delicious!
I volunteer at a raw milk dairy and I have a quart of cream that soured in the refridgerator. It doesn’t smell good sour like sour cream. It smells spoiled sour. How do I tell the difference between it being good or not?
I have very fresh raw milk. I tried to make sour cream. I left it out for 24 hours to let separate because am also making cottage cheese. I skimmed off cream and tasted it and it tasted very bitter as opposed to sour. Is it possible I just need to let it sit out longer and maybe it will actually start to taste sour?
How long will the sour cream store in the fridge?
What is the refrigerator shelf life of the raw organic sour cream? Thanks
My homemade sour cream always stinks like sour milk. The kids hate it. How do I get it to not stink?