Creme Fraiche vs Sour Cream

Creme fraiche was something I had heard of - usually on menus in fancy restaurants - but I did not actually know what it was. It turns out that creme fraiche is pretty much the natural version of sour cream. It is whipping cream cultured with buttermilk until it gets tangy and thick.

I figured this out as I was googling how to make homemade sour cream. It turns out that you can't actually make homemade sour cream because the way to thicken lower fat daily products (0%, 1%, 5%, 15%) into a sour cream consistency requires additives that you would never add to home cooking. I looked at my sour cream in the fridge and sure enough there is a lot of weird stuff in there to thicken it up: modified corn starch, guar gum, carrageenan (a food additive that is extracted from a red seaweed), and locust bean gum.

Creme fraiche tastes very similar to sour cream though is more buttery (due to the higher fat content) and slightly more runny (no thickeners added).

To make this creme fraiche I added about a quarter cup of homemade buttermilk to whipping cream. I covered it with a breathable cloth and let it sit at room temperature for 36 hours. Ta-da! Nachos anyone?