True Cultured Sour Cream

Name: True Cultured Sour Cream
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 2 min
Total time: 7 min
Yield: 1 serving
Ingredients: 1/8 tsp Sour cream culture; 2 cup Low pasteurized cream

This homemade sour cream is one of those quiet kitchen staples that changes everything once you begin making it yourself. Thick, gently tangy, and deeply nourishing, it reflects the simplicity of traditional kitchens—where cultured dairy was a living food, not a processed ingredient. With just a few real components and time to ferment naturally, cream transforms into something richer in flavor, easier to digest, and far more satisfying than anything store-bought. Making sour cream at home reconnects you to an older rhythm of cooking: allowing food to culture slowly, letting beneficial bacteria do their work, and trusting simple processes over complicated products. The result is a soft, creamy sour cream perfect for topping soups, folding into baked goods, or serving alongside meals where real food is meant to shine.

Jessica Kelly

Prep

Cook

Total

Ingredients

Method

Turn cooking mode on

Step 1

Heat cream to 86 degrees, slowly bringing it up to temp. Remove from heat. Add culture and stir gently. Cover pot and ferment on the counter for 12-14 hours. Transfer to airtight jar and ferment another 24 hours on the counter. Whisk and store in the fridge.

Access all recipes now

Cook along with all of our recipes

Save your favourites and build your own collections

Access all membership benefits

Already subscribed? Log in or switch accounts.

For

1/8

tsp

Sour cream culture

cup

Low pasteurized cream, Or raw cream (this cannot be done with ultra-pasteurized because it will not have enough life in the cream to proliferate the culture)

Access all recipes now

Cook along with all of our recipes

Save your favourites and build your own collections

Access all membership benefits

Already subscribed? Log in or switch accounts.

Notes

A few very important things:
1. The cream needs to be raw or low temp pasteurized. Ultra pasteurized will not work.
2. This recipe is for a specific culture (one I have tried and had success with on amazon. Here is the link: https://amzn.to/4r2WxAo
3. You can use your cultured sour cream for the next batch but do it within 5-7 days or the cultures will likely not be active enough anymore. Tip: freeze sour cream cubes to preserve culture for later!

I’ve tried over 5 recipes for sour cream and they never had the same taste and texture as real sour cream, until I started making it this way.

Your private notes

Only visible to you

Made it?

Dairy,

Fermentations,

Staples Recipes

Comments

Cancel

More to explore

Easy Homemade Cottage Cheese

1 hour

Super Soft Sugar Cookies with Naturally Colored Strawberry Icing

8 minutes

Herb Crusted Salmon with Roasted Veggies & Sourdough

10 minutes

Garden Broccoli Cheddar Soup in Sourdough Bread Bowls

27 minutes

Fresh-Milled Sourdough Bread

55 minutes

Beef Stroganoff

55 minutes

Marshmallow Root Tea

12 minutes

Ritz Peanut Butter Crackers

13 minutes

True Cultured Sour Cream

This homemade sour cream is one of those quiet kitchen staples that changes everything once you begin making it yourself. Thick, gently tangy, and deeply nourishing, it reflects the simplicity of traditional kitchens—where cultured dairy was a living food, not a processed ingredient. With just a few real components and time to ferment naturally, cream transforms into something richer in flavor, easier to digest, and far more satisfying than anything store-bought. Making sour cream at home reconnects you to an older rhythm of cooking: allowing food to culture slowly, letting beneficial bacteria do their work, and trusting simple processes over complicated products. The result is a soft, creamy sour cream perfect for topping soups, folding into baked goods, or serving alongside meals where real food is meant to shine.

Jessica Kelly

Prep

Cook

Total

Ingredients

Method

Turn cooking mode on

Step 1

Access all recipes now

Cook along with all of our recipes

Save your favourites and build your own collections

Access all membership benefits

Already subscribed? Log in or switch accounts.

For

1/8

tsp

Sour cream culture

cup

Low pasteurized cream, Or raw cream (this cannot be done with ultra-pasteurized because it will not have enough life in the cream to proliferate the culture)

Access all recipes now

Cook along with all of our recipes

Save your favourites and build your own collections

Access all membership benefits

Already subscribed? Log in or switch accounts.