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!
@EclecticEdibles thanks for the mention! Hope you enjoyed it 🙂
Thanks for this article! If you don’t mind helping me-for clarification, I have a substantial amount of raw cream that has soured on its own in my fridge & also raw soured milk. We were sick over the Thanksgiving holiday & it kind of went downhill from there!! 🙂 Do I just skim the soured cream & set if out for a few hours to thicken? & want can I do w/this soured milk, other than using it to bake? I’m thinking about freezing the milk & pulling it out to bake-but would LOVE any other suggestions you may have!
@Renny I am sorry to hear you were sick, hope you all are doing better. Yes, just skim of the soured cream and it is fine to leave out for several hours to thicken. It will also continue to thicken in the refrigerator. Here is a great article from The Healthy Home Economist, 101 things you can do with soured milk. 🙂
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/101-uses-for-soured-raw-milk/
@hallecottis
Thank you for the quick reply!! Do you know how long the sour cream will keep? Will it continue to just get more sour, but still be edible? (I have a ton…)
@Renny It will keep awhile, not sure how long exactly. Yes it will continue to get sour the longer it sits. I have had to toss mine once because it was way to sour. Try using it to make dips and other creamy delights 🙂
If it gets too sour you can always mix in fresh cream to pull it back to the desired sourness
@hallecottis
Great ideas! Also loving the list you posted. I did not realize I could make yogurt & kefir w/my soured milk. I have milk kefir grains & a Bulgarian yogurt starter I have been dying to try! Many thanks.
I’m into it!
I have been buying raw milk and cream for a few months now and I love it! I purchase a quart of raw cream
this time, and have not used it yet. It’s been in the back of my fridge for about 2 1/2 weeks and when I opened
it is already soured and thickened. It smells like sour milk. So it should be safe to eat? Should I stir it up?
Also, I assume I don’t need to add any vinegar to make sour cream with raw cream.
Hope to hear soon!
What you have is sour cream already. It is safe to use just skim the sour cream off the top and use. Do not stir it in.
Could you add beef gellatin to this to thicken it up?
Just a thought
I am wanting to try recipes with raw milk-I live not to far from you in Green Bay.I can’t find raw milk anywhere-it’s illeagal to sell in WI. What do you do for yours!
Thanks-I love your recipes!
It isn’t illegal if it is sold to animals or if you are an employee at the farm. Goto http://www.westonaprice.org/ to find local farmers in your area.
I made this and mine ended up very thick and way sour. Did I leave it out too long?
You might have. If made from raw milk, it is much more sour than store bought, but still pleasing to the taste. Hope that helps a bit.
Hi. I took both of Sunday’s milkings from our cow, set it on the counter (in a stainless bucket), and then last night I skimmed off the cream and put it in a bowl in the refrigerator. This morning, that stuff is SO THICK! It is like store bought cream cheese, and it smells like mozzarella cheese. Did I do something wrong? I also left the rest of the milk to make cream cheese, which I have hanging to drip right now. We will see how that turns out!
I made incredible sour cream from the cream skimmed off raw cow’s milk. It has the perfect texture and consistency. It also has a very distinctive blue cheese-type taste. If I leave it out long enough, will it harden to blue cheese?
I am not sure how blue cheese is made, you might want to do a google search on that. 🙂
Do you know the difference between raw sour cream and raw cultured sour cream? I have raw cream that I am leaving on my counter to make into sour cream. I wanted to give it to my daughter who has a questionable dairy allergy and the diet protocol recommends raw cultured sour cream. Thanks!
I had about a quart of raw milk that was starting to clabber. So I put it on my countertop in its original glass bottle for a couple of days. Today I strained it into a stainless steel colander with cheesecloth. After letting it sit a few hours, I had a very small amount of what looks like sour cream. I tasted it, and found an unpleasant tinny taste. The milk itself was good, we just couldn’t drink it all before it started to clabber. Did I do something wrong? I am putting it through the cheesecloth one more time. Do you think it’s edible? Just not sure why it’s got a tinny taste. Should I have refrigerated it the whole time? Thanks if you can help!
Sounds like you did everything right. It will have a bit more tangy taste to it, and doesn’t exactly taste like store-bought sour cream. If you feel it is “off”, it might be best to toss it, your milk could have gone bad.
I had some raw cream that was way past what I would consider an expiration. I tasted it and had kind of a tinney taste to it also. I took it back to the farm and they were able to use it. They can even pour it on the plants it’s good for your garden. And I was reading when it turns into clabber. That they used to use it until they started making baking soda. It could be used in cakes to make it rise.
I’m not sure if I’m doing this right. I left a cup of raw cream out. After 24 hours a quarter inch layer thickened on the top of the cream. Below that it was the original consistency. Did I miss something? Is that quarter inch the sour cream? Thanks!
Hey David! That doesn’t sound correct. Is your cream from a raw source?
Yes. Raw cream from a local farm. The whole thing should be thickening up, correct? I left it out overnight so I’ll see how it looks today. Any other ideas?
I left it out for another 12 hours and it appears to have thickened up quite a bit more throughout. Also, the smell has become more sour. I think it just needed more time. I have now put it in the refrigerator to get it even thicker. Looks like a success!
Great David! Sounds like you’ve done it perfectly. It may be a bit more sour than traditional store-bought sour cream, but still indeed very tasty!
hey there
what about making sour cream from raw heavy cream..?
I usually get it from the farmer,
have some raw heavy cream in the fridge that is two weeks old and wantes to turn it into sour cream?!
Thanks ??