How To Make Old Fashioned Homemade Sour Cream

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Learn how to make old-fashioned homemade sour cream in this step by step tutorial.  Sour cream is just what the name suggests, it’s soured cream.  It’s very simple to make and you can use sour cream from the last batch to culture the next.  Rich, creamy and delicious, once you’ve tasted real sour cream, you’ll never go back to store-bought sour cream.  Made with only two ingredients, this raw probiotic-rich creamy sour cream recipe is perfect for baking, cooking or eating fresh on a baked potato or taco.

Sour cream is one of my favorite dairy products and it’s one of the easiest ones to make.  I like to use our raw cream from our Jersey cows to make this simple recipe, but I’ll show you how to make it with pasteurized cream if that’s all you have access to.    

Basics of Making Sour Cream

Sour cream is so easy to make, that once you make it once, you won’t ever have to look at the recipe again.  It’s that simple!  There are many different ways that it can be made, and I’ll share them with you here.  You can either add a starter culture (either clabber or a sour cream culture), or just let the cream (if using raw cream) sit out on the counter at room temperature for a few hours to “clabber” or turn into sour cream.  Then when you want to make more sour cream, just take a little bit of your “clabbered or cultured” cream from the last batch and add it to a new jar of cream.  It’s seriously that easy!  

So, you may be wondering, what is cream anyway?  And where does it come from?  Cream is naturally produced by dairy animals in their milk and in the case of cattle, when the milk is chilled, the cream, which is thicker than the milk, rises to the top of the milk.  You can easily skim the cream off the top of a jar of milk with a ladle or a small measuring cup.  You can also run the milk and cream through a cream separator while the milk is still warm, and the machine will separate the cream from the milk.

Cream is the most coveted part of the milk, because you can make it into so many delicious things.  It can be churned into butter, whipped into cream, served in coffee, tea or even in cream soups, and in this case, allowed to culture into sour cream.  When cream is allowed to culture into sour cream, it gets thicker and develops a rich, slightly tangy sour cream.

Traditional Sour Cream

Cheese-making is an old-fashioned skill that has been passed down through many generations.  In the old days before refrigeration milk and cream were preserved into cheese or sour cream soon after being milked from the cow.  Making cheese was a way of preserving milk, just like canning is a way of preserving meat and vegetables.  I’m sure that sour cream was discovered accidentally after some raw cream had been left to set out, and naturally cultured into sour cream.  Not wanting to waste anything, they probably tried this thick and beautiful cream on their food, and discovered how delicious it was with the slightly tart flavor developed during the culturing process.

Raw Milk vs. Pasteurized Milk

Pasteurized or raw cream both work well for making sour cream.  I prefer to always use raw cream because it is high in probiotics and beneficial bacteria.  If you use raw cream, you can easily turn it into sour cream by letting it sit out on the countertop, and the naturally occurring enzymes in the milk will turn it into sour cream.  If using pasteurized cream, you will need to add some kind of a starter culture to your first batch because all of the enzymes in the milk would have been destroyed during the pasteurization process.

My Experience With Raw Milk

I’ve been milking dairy cows for the last fifteen years and in that time I’ve learned a lot about dairy cattle. I’ve learned how to make all of our dairy products including all of our hard cheeses. This has made a big difference in our grocery bill and has kept our family healthy and thriving.  Having a family dairy cow is a lot of responsibility, but the rewards are so worth it!  When learning about dairy cows, or any new homesteading skill, I suggest that you take it slow and learn one or two things at a time so it’s not so overwhelming.  There’s lots to learn, but I’m here to help you and make it easier for you!

Cultured Dairy

When dairy is cultured, the bacteria that we add to the milk or cream (i.e. clabber or sour cream culture) breaks down the lactose in the milk. It also produces lactic acid bacteria which lowers the PH of the milk, and increases the available health benefits.  Culturing dairy also prolongs its shelf life, for example, sour cream will last longer in the refrigerator than raw cream.  This is why a lot of people that are lactose intolerant, can tolerate cultured dairy as opposed to uncultured dairy (milk).

Why You’ll Enjoy Making Your Own Sour Cream

• Because you’ll never run out of sour cream, especially if you have your own dairy cow.  
• Making sour cream only takes a minute or two of your time.
• It can be cultured in the beginning with a clabber culture if you have one

Ways We Enjoy This Homemade Sour Cream Recipe

• In tacos or burritos
• In soups or pasta dishes
• For baking sourdough muffins
• As a base for dips
• On baked potatoes
• With green onions for a favorite dip
• As a base for salad dressing

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Tips For Making Homemade Sour Cream From Raw Milk

• For the thickest sour cream, use heavy whipping cream to make your sour cream.  The thinner your cream, the thinner the sour cream will be.  For a thicker consistency, run your fresh raw milk through a cream separator.
• Use a ladle or a small measuring cup to “skim” the cream off the top of raw milk, or you can purchase heavy cream from a dairy or the grocery store.
• If you are using pasteurized cream, you will need to add a sour cream starter culture to your cream to get it to sour.
• How long you leave the cream sitting out on the counter depends on how sour you want your cream and the temperature of your house.  I like to watch the sides of the jar, and put it in the refrigerator as soon as I see small bubbles starting to form.  That tells me that the cream is fully cultured.  If you leave it for much longer, the cream will taste more sour.
•  Putting your sour cream in the refrigerator slows down the culturing process and keeps the cream good for 2 to 3 weeks.

More Home Dairy Recipes

• How To Make Butter The Easy Way
• How to Make A Clabber Culture For Cheesemaking
• Raw Cottage Cheese
• How To Make Homemade Mozzarella Using A Clabber Culture

FAQ

Why Is My Homemade Sour Cream Runny?

Raw sour cream will tend to by more runny than commercial sour creams because it doesn’t contain any artificial thickeners.  For a thicker sour cream you can add 2 teaspoons of gelatin to a quart of cream to help remedy that.  The thicker the cream you start with, the thicker your end result of sour cream will be.  I have no problem getting really thick cream from my Jersey cows because Jersey’s are known to be heavy cream producers.  But if you are milking a different kind of cow, your cream might be thinner, so you might need to add a bit of thickener.

What Are The Health Benefits Of Homemade Sour Cream?

Raw milk contains lots of vitamins, minerals and probiotics that will not only improve your gut health, but your overall health as well.  So raw sour cream is going to be the most healthy for you.  Also, anytime you culture or ferment something like sourdough, sauerkraut or other fermented veggies, or raw milk and turn it into yogurt or some other cultured dairy, you are greatly improving it’s digestibility and increasing the amount of probiotics available to your body.

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Simple Ingredients

• Cream
• Clabber Culture, Sour Cream Culture or Mesophilic starter culture

Tools You May Need

• Ladle
• Mason Jar
• Jar Funnel
• Spoon – for stirring

How To Make Old Fashioned Homemade Sour Cream

For Raw Milk Sour Cream

For whole milk, skim the cream from the top of raw milk using a ladle or a small measuring cup, and place it in a quart jar.

Optional:  If the cream from your cow is very thin cream, you can add 2 teaspoons of gelatin to the cream and it will help to thicken it up as it cultures).  I never find that necessary with the cream from my Jersey cows, because it is naturally thick cream.

You can add a starter culture like sour cream starter culture, mesophilic culture or clabber culture if you prefer, but if you are using raw cream that really isn’t necessary.

Cover the jar loosely with a beeswax jar bonnet or paper towel and rubber band and allow it to sit out in a warm place until it’s thick and bubbles start to form on the side of the jar.  This usually takes about 24 hours for fresh cream.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three weeks.

For the next batch, use 1 Tablespoon of this sour cream and add it to the next jar of cream.  It will cause it to culture much faster (usually less than 12 hours) and the flavor will improve over time.

 For Pastuerized Sour Cream

You will need to add a starter culture like sour cream starter culture, mesophilic culture or clabber culture to inoculate the cream with the enzymes needed to culture.  For the sour cream starter culture use the directions on the back of the starter culture packet.  To use mesophilic culture, warm the cream to 86 degrees, and stir in ⅛ teaspoon of culture.  For clabber culture, just add 1 Tablespoon to a quart of cream.  The warmer your cream, the faster it will culture.

Cover the jar loosely with a beeswax jar bonnet or cloth and allow it to sit out in a warm place until it’s thick and bubbles start to form on the side of the jar.  This can take 12 to 24 hours depending on the culture you use and the temperature of your cream and environment.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three weeks.

For subsequent batches, use 1 Tablespoon of this sour cream and add it to the next jar of cream.  It will cause it to culture much faster (usually less than 12 hours) and the flavor will improve over time.