Homemade Sour Cream!!

Homemade Sour Cream is probably one of those items that I never considered doing because it was just so easy to pick up a small container when I needed it. But in my quest to be more frugal and sustainable on what I have available, I have discovered that I was thinking about this all wrong. I CAN culture my sour cream & always have it available. I avoid extra trips past the store AND avoid the temptation to get the other 15 items when I only really needed just one or two.  My savings here are Three fold! I save time and money for NOT stopping past the store, I have available what I need and I can Freeze any excess to keep for later! Oh and the best part? It cost me .84 for a quart of fresh sour cream. Is a quart too much for you? I reduced the recipe for you to 10 Ounces and your finished cost will be .26       Bring on the burritos and salsa I am READY!




Since I am going on vacation with a beach house full of family next week I made a 2 quarts of Sour Cream to take with me. Yeah... we all like to cook and eat hot spicy food, as well as all those delicious dips for our Veggies and Chips (you cannot be good all the time!  :)  I reduced the recipe for you which will make 10 ounces of Sour Cream. Your cost for this amount is .26 ~  Compare that to your store bought at 2.00 and you can see how substantial the savings are. Even the most prudent coupon queen would be hard pressed to beat that deal.

Homemade Sour Cream

1 cup Whole Milk
1/4 cup sour cream or  homemade plain yogurt 

First and foremost you will need to heat your milk to 185 and hold it there for about 5 minutes. This will assure that there is no "bad" bacteria ~ it is essentially pasturizing your milk again. I sit my burner on about medium 4 - 5 to accomplish this. After 5 minutes I turn the burner off and allow the milk to cool back down to 110. This will take a while to cool off, but you can sit the pan on a cooling rack to allow air flow under to help speed it up. As you can see it is "almost" cooled off enough. Don't rush it though, you do not want to kill the cultures with the high heat ~ Patience is a virtue and you can multi-task while waiting.

Next get your mason jar with lid or any repurposed jar you will be using (IE: Spag. Sauce Jars work well too!) and fill them about a 1/4 of the way with hot water. Without the lid on it, place in the microwave and heat for 3 minutes. This will sterilize the jar. Be careful when you remove it as both the water and the jar will be VERY hot. Let stand on your counter with the hot water and place the lid on it until the milk is cooled.

Once the milk has cooled place the sour cream or yogurt in the jar and mix about a cup of the still warm milk in there and shake it around to mix it up.

Add the rest of the milk and place the lid on there, shake well to incorporate it evenly.

Place your covered jar on your counter, away from drafts for about 12 - 14 hours. I place mine in my insulated lunch bag... I swear I think I use it more for making my cultures than for taking my lunches with me :) 

Your sour cream will be done when you move your jar and the contents stay all together. Place in the Refrigerator for at least a couple of hours before using. This will stop the culturing. Now you are ready to enjoy!! You will need to use it in about a week and start a new batch. You can adjust the amount to make it larger or smaller to fit your families needs. Honestly since I make my yogurt every week, I have used that as the starter for the sour cream and you cannot tell the difference :) 

Sweet! Look at that creamy thick texture :)

If you conserve a 1/4 cup of your homemade sour cream you can use that make your next batch and you will not have to buy it again. You can safely store your "starter" in the freezer until you need to make your next batch. An easy way to store is to place in Ice cube trays, allow to freeze then remove and place them in a ziplock freezer bag. Then you can use as little or much as needed.

#SourCream  #HomemadeCondiments #CulturingSourCream #MyFrugalKitchen  #ACountryGirlCanSurvive