Sour Cream & Crème Fraîche Troubleshooting FAQ - Cultures For Health (2024)

FAQs

What is the bacterial culture in crème fraîche? ›

Making crème fraîche is relatively straightforward: Introduce Lactobacillus bacteria cultures to fresh cream, either by adding yogurt, buttermilk, or some other source of live bacteria cultures, and let them thrive.

Crème fraîche (English pronunciation: /ˌkrɛmˈfrɛʃ/, French pronunciation: [kʁɛm fʁɛʃ], lit. "fresh cream") is a dairy product, a soured cream containing 10–45% butterfat, with a pH of approximately 4.5. It is soured with a bacterial culture.

Sometimes store-bought sour cream is cultured. However, not all of them are, so you will need to read the label. Store-bought sour cream is generally not a very vigorous culture, so give it a full 24 hours the first time you use it to make homemade sour cream.

In industrial settings, both crème fraîchee and sour cream are made with pasteurized milk inoculated with specific bacterial cultures, with the main difference being that crème fraîche is fattier and thicker, and sour cream is tangier, lower in fat, and has a more liquid texture.

Cultured sour cream is made by adding a culture of Streptococcus lactis to pasteurized light cream and incubating at 72˚F until the desired flavor and thickness is reached. The lactic acid produced by the culture coagulates the protein, thickening the cream and adding the characteristically sour flavor.

Rich in calcium and probiotics, crème fraîche can help to promote gut health, but its high-fat content might not align with everyone's dietary goals. The best way to make informed choices when incorporating crème fraîche into your meals is by understanding what your body wants and needs.

Greek yogurt is made from cow's milk that is strained to remove the whey, this results in a thicker consistency compared to natural yogurt. It also has a tangier flavour and can often be used as a healthier substitute to mayonnaise, sour cream or crème fraîche.

Usually, regular sour cream won't help your gut the same way yogurt can. But some brands add bacteria cultures back in after the last round of pasteurization. If you can find these products, they might help promote a healthy balance of bacteria in your gut.

Crème fraiche and sour cream are alike in a lot of ways and they can be substituted on a 1:1 ratio (if your recipe calls for ½ cup crème fraiche, use ½ cup sour cream).

Yogurt is usually lower in fat and probiotics than sour cream. However, flavored yogurt may contain much more sugar. However, the unflavored kind of yogurt may actually be a healthier alternative to sour cream, if you are seeking that creamy, slightly sour flavor.

Is sour cream anti-inflammatory? ›

In one recent meta-analysis, researchers actually found that dairy had a modest anti-inflammatory effect in individuals with metabolic disorders. Much of these effects can be attributed to the fermented dairy products such as kefir, yogurt, or sour cream that can easily be incorporated into a healthy diet.

After eating cheese and sour cream, immune cells showed fewer signs of inflammatory processes than after eating butter and whipped cream. This may mean that cheese and sour cream could be healthier than butter and whipped cream.

Unlike crème fraîche, sour cream may be thickened with stabilizers like gelatin since it contains less fat. Sour cream gets about 80% of its calories from fat, while light sour cream contains less fat than regular sour cream because it's made with half-and-half instead of cream.

More of the original sweet milky flavors come through. Crème fraîche is a fantastic and versatile ingredient in the kitchen. In a broad sense, you can use crème fraîche as a substitute for yogurt, sour cream, or even mayonnaise in most recipes.

Crema originated in Mexico and is thinner than either creme fraiche or sour cream. It has a milder taste than sour cream and has a similar tang to creme fraiche, and it is the sweetest of the three. It is often used in recipes to balance out spicy chipotle flavors.

Cultured cream is just as it sounds – culturing or fermenting cream by adding different beneficial bacteria allowing it to develop a tangy or slightly soured taste. Both sour cream and crème fraiche are a type of cultured cream. Essentially, cultured cream is the only ingredient in both sour cream and crème fraiche.

Yogurt is made when heated milk is combined with bacteria, specifically Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, and left to sit for several hours at a warm temperature (110-115°F). Additional types of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria may be added.

The bacteria present were of many varieties, the commonest being Bacillus spp. (aerobic spore formers), Gram-negative bacilli, staphylococci and micrococci.

Cultured Crème also uses a unique blend of dairy cultures that offer a smoother taste experience unlike the slightly sour flavor of traditional yogurt.