Are sour cream and crème fraîche interchangeable?
When no one’s looking, I’d preferably spoon it straight from the container into my mouth, but I often manage to leave it alone until we sit down at the table. Sour cream and crème fraîche: both incredibly delicious and indispensable in many dishes. But does it actually matter which of the two you use in the kitchen? It depends…
Did you make tomato soup one day, with a generous dollop of crème fraîche stirred in, and then find yourself craving a tasty Mexican bowl with rice, avocado, beans, salsa, tortilla chips the next day—with everything in the house except, damn it, the sour cream? Want to know whether you can simply spoon that crème fraîche over it? Or what the difference is in the first place?
How are they made?
Sour cream, or zure room, is made by adding lactic acid bacteria to cream. The mixture then ferments for a while, giving it its distinctive sour, slightly tart flavor. For crème fraîche, the cream is only acidified with bacteria, but not fermented. In France, crème fraîche was traditionally made from raw milk for a long time, but these days many supermarket versions there are pasteurized too.
Fat makes it delicious
The biggest difference lies in the fat percentages. Sour cream contains only 10% fat, while crème fraîche contains 30–35%. And that is immediately the key point, because those fat percentages (along with sour cream’s slightly higher protein content) determine whether the cream will curdle when heated. So cooking sour cream into a stew, soup, or sauce at the end isn’t a good idea. You can spoon it onto something hot just before serving, though—for example, baked potatoes (delicious with bacon and chives). But when used cold or at room temperature, they are virtually interchangeable, at least for that fresh, tangy note. With crème fraîche, its higher fat content also gives you plenty of smooth creaminess as a bonus—but it really depends on what you’re in the mood for at that moment. Either way, a thick dollop of cold crème fraîche alongside your apple pie is not to be underestimated—you really should try it instead of whipped cream!
Read also:
- Star chef recommends the best basic ingredients for home cooks
- 6 Amsterdam cafés where you can still get minced meat on your nachos
- How to: find alternatives to fresh cream
