Making one's own Creme Fraiche

[Joyfull]

I would like to try making my own as its hit or miss here whether it'll be in the shop when its needed..

So, I did some research, found so many different recipes that I figured I'd better ask a few questions before starting this project..

Sour cream or buttermilk? Which one makes it the best and the thickest? What would the difference in taste be using one or the other?

If I was to use the buttermilk, should I purchase the old fashioned style (its higher in fat and very thick) or just plain old buttermilk?

Also, the amounts?? geez, that can be somewhat confusing!
Heres just a few as an example..

From: Lesley Chesterman (Montreal Gazette)

conbine 500ml 35% cream with two tablespoons (30ml) buttermilk..

From: More Than Salt and Pepper by Caren McSherry

combine 1 cup whipping cream with 4 tablespoons sour cream or buttermilk..

Then on an creme fraiche search I did here, its recommened to use the same amount of each..
1 cup whipping cream with 1 cup sour cream or buttermilk..

Another one by Rob Feenie.. His calls for 1 cup cream, 1/3 cup buttermilk, plus 1 tsp. lemon juice. He also states that the standard porportions for creme fraiche are 3 parts cream, 1 part buttermilk and a little lemon juice..

As you can see.. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated!

[shel]

I don't really have any advice as I've only made creme fraiche a couple of times, but when I did, I used Paula Wolfert's technique found as an addendum to her recipe, Poulet aux Perles d'Ail Doux et au Sauternes, found in the first edition of The Cooking of Southwest France. Here it is verbatim, unedited, and in all it's verbose Paula Wolfert glory.

CREME FRAICHE ... Delicious and thick with a round, nutty flavor, this wonderful product is often used in desserts, but it also makes a great marinade in my house for broiling and cooking. It is sweet heavy cream that is naturally thickened with the lactic bacteria - the good bacterial part of cream, which is killed by pasteurization - restored.

You can make it easily with the freeze-dried Solait starter. Homemade Creme Fraiche made with the freeze-dried lactic bacteria will stay fresh for 3 weeks in the refrigerator. It makes the best-tasting product - even better than the commercially produced Creme Fraiche now available in some parts of the country (some American-made commercial versions contain preservatives and gum for thickening). To use the starter, mix it with 1 tablespoon cold water until thoroughly dissolved, then combine with 1 quart heavy cream that has been heated to 100 degrees F. Let it rest in the "cooker" made by Solait, or under pillows and blankets just the way the Turks used to make yogurt. Do not use an electric yogurt maker. Let it rest 18 hours, or until it sets (this can sometimes take up to 24 hours). Then place it in the refrigerator to set further. Chilling will make it thicker! It keeps a few weeks under good refrigeration.

To make Creme Fraiche with buttermilk, combine 1 cup heavy cream and 2 tablespoons active-culture buttermilk in a large jar.Cover and store in a warm place away from drafts 12 to 18 hours, or until thickened. Stir and refrigerate, covered. Keeps 1 week or longer.

As a variation, Creme Fraiche can be made with light cream. In this case, it should not be used for broiling or thickening sauces but can be used as an accompaniment to desserts and as a tenderizer for chicken, and as part of a sauce in a dish such as Squab Chicken or Rock Cornish Game Hen with Lemon-Garlic Sauce. Save about 2 tablespoons of Creme Fraiche to use as a starter for your next batch. It will keep a week and will make more Creme Fraiche in half the time.

If you want double-thick Creme Fraiche, it is very easy to make. Simply drain your Creme Fraiche in a drip coffee funnel lined with a paper filter and set over a jar. The whey separates through to the jar below, leaving the thickened Creme Fraiche in the filter. This process takes about 3 hours. (If you let it go longer, you will end up with-fresh cheese.)

Don't discard the separated whey. According to Barbara Kafka, whey has special cooking uses as well as nutritional value. She suggests using it to make lighter and flakier pastry. Use it also in fish and vegetable stocks, where it quickly draws out the flavor of the ingredients. Whey will keep fresh for about a week in the refrigerator.

My Note: I recall using the thicker, more flavorful, buttermilk.

Shel

[Luc_H]

Hello Joyfull!

(I am guessing your are from Montreal if you are a reader of the Gazette?)
Crème fraîche has been discussed here before:
Creme Fraiche

let me clarify some of the confusion you have:
Crème fraîche is cream (35%) that is acidified.
there are two ways to acidify cream (or milk products in general):
1) using live lactic acid bacteria culture (the traditional way) like butter milk, sour cream or pure starter cultures.
2) using acids (vinegar, lemon juice, buttermilk and sour cream).

In both cases buttermilk or sour cream can be used but in a different way.
1) adding a small amount of live (not pasteurized) buttermilk or sour cream (or freeze dried culture) to cream, the bacteria will multiply and ferment the cream. The lactose will be converted to lactic acid which will acidify the cream. When milk proteins are acidified then thicken.

2) adding an acid like a large amount of pasteurized sour cream, pasteurized buttermilk, a little of lemon juice (strong acid) and/or vinegar (strong acid) to cream it will become acidified quickly and thicken as per the process in point 1.

In both cases the final result is a thick cream with a slight sourness. (It is in fact quite sour but the butterfat dulls the tongue from tasting to acid)

I live in Montreal. I have not seen any unpasteurized buttermilk at my local supermarkets but sour cream appears to be unpasteurized. I have made crème fraîche a couple of times either by using sour cream or cultures I obtained commercially and the results vary because if you leave the cultured cream fermenting too long it turns to a thick sour cream instead of a light thick flowing cream.
Crème fraîche is very close to sour cream (crème sûre).

The pillow and blanket method describe below is eloquent. I would suggest you use a cooler to insulate the fermenting cream from temperature swings.( see yogurt technique: Low-tech homemade yoghurt)


i hope this helps!
Luc H.

[Joyfull]

Thanks Shel

I love the idea of the starter but don't recall ever seeing anything like that here..
I'll try the buttermilk version as that seems to be everyones first choice from what I've read so far.. Still curious as to what the difference would be using sour cream though.. I'll probably end up trying both just to see for myself..

By the way, I looked up Paula Wolfert's website as I was not familiar with her or her books.. I'm quite enjoying it..
Have you made many of the recipes from your book?

[shel]

Originally Posted by Joyfull

By the way, I looked up Paula Wolfert's website as I was not familiar with her or her books.. I'm quite enjoying it..
Have you made many of the recipes from your book?

I've made a few of her recipes, although she's quick to point out that many of the recipes in her book are from a variety of sources, and are not really "hers." She will sometimes adapt a recipe to use ingredients that are not found in the US, although she was also quick to point out where more "authentic" ingredients could be found, usually by mail order or, now, thru the 'net. It's certainly easier to get authentic ingredients these days, especially in my area.

I made the dish mentioned in my original post, used her technique for air dried duck breast, her duck confit (she has a wonderful chapter on making confit the traditional way), a cassoulet (which, in the book, is preceeded by a five page introduction on her search for the most authentic cassoulet and the anecdote of how André Daguin prepared three versions of the dish for her for lunch one day), and a Catalan chicken dish that bears the nickname "the poultry dish for the bandits' hideout" (repaire de bandits Catalans). And although I don't bake much, I do love brioche, and her account of trying to make the "perfect" brioche dough is wonderful.

I am a big fan of hers if only because she was the one who inspired me to search out authentic ingrediends, eschew shortcuts, and pay attention to the history of a dish, understanding it's origins and background and how important - or unimportant - local ingredients can be.

Two other cooks who inspired me (although there were certainly more than three in total) were Madeline Kamann because of her memoire/cookbook "When French Women Cook" and similarly the recipes and stories of Josephine Araldo laid out in "From a Breton Garden."

Shel

[Joyfull]

Originally Posted by Luc_H

Hello Joyfull!

(I am guessing your are from Montreal if you are a reader of the Gazette?)
Crème fraîche has been discussed here before:
Creme Fraiche

let me clarify some of the confusion you have:
Crème fraîche is cream (35%) that is acidified.
there are two ways to acidify cream (or milk products in general):
1) using live lactic acid bacteria culture (the traditional way) like butter milk, sour cream or pure starter cultures.
2) using acids (vinegar, lemon juice, buttermilk and sour cream).

In both cases buttermilk or sour cream can be used but in a different way.
1) adding a small amount of live (not pasteurized) buttermilk or sour cream (or freeze dried culture) to cream, the bacteria will multiply and ferment the cream. The lactose will be converted to lactic acid which will acidify the cream. When milk proteins are acidified then thicken.

2) adding an acid like a large amount of pasteurized sour cream, pasteurized buttermilk, a little of lemon juice (strong acid) and/or vinegar (strong acid) to cream it will become acidified quickly and thicken as per the process in point 1.

In both cases the final result is a thick cream with a slight sourness. (It is in fact quite sour but the butterfat dulls the tongue from tasting to acid)

I live in Montreal. I have not seen any unpasteurized buttermilk at my local supermarkets but sour cream appears to be unpasteurized. I have made crème fraîche a couple of times either by using sour cream or cultures I obtained commercially and the results vary because if you leave the cultured cream fermenting too long it turns to a thick sour cream instead of a light thick flowing cream.
Crème fraîche is very close to sour cream (crème sûre).

The pillow and blanket method describe below is eloquent. I would suggest you use a cooler to insulate the fermenting cream from temperature swings.( see yogurt technique: Low-tech homemade yoghurt)


i hope this helps!
Luc H.

Thank for the great info Luc

Actually I'm just outside Vancouver, New Westiminster to be exact..
I just like to read newspaper food columns.. They're usually full of good stuff..

I read about Lesley Chesterman on egullet so of course had to look him too..

I did read the older creme fraiche thread. That's where I saw the 1 to 1 ratio which was different from the other formula's I've read so thats why I figured I'd ask more questions..

I've checked my buttermilk and its pasturized, not sure about the thicker one at the supermarket but I suspect it will be the same.
Also, my sour cream has added ingredients, (corn starch, gelatin, guar gum, and much more before you finally see the words, active bacterial culture.. Now I'm wondering if any of them will work properly..
About the only thing I have that does not say pasturized or have added junk, is my Balkan yogourt..

I'm going to have to see if I can find untreated organic sour cream or buttermilk to go ahead with this project.

[Luc_H]

Hello Joyfull,

Organic unpasteurized and simple ingredients is the way to go.

Yogurt is a different type of bacterial culture that likes hotter temperatures to ferment (around 40C).

When you think about it sour cream/crème fraîche/buttermilk, yogurt and even kefir use the same process (ferment many hours) but with different cultures.

Luc H.

[shel]

Here's a thread on the subject that I found on another forum:

Homemade Creme Fraiche

Shel

[Anneke]

Originally Posted by Joyfull

I've checked my buttermilk and its pasturized, not sure about the thicker one at the supermarket but I suspect it will be the same.
Also, my sour cream has added ingredients, (corn starch, gelatin, guar gum, and much more before you finally see the words, active bacterial culture.. Now I'm wondering if any of them will work properly..
About the only thing I have that does not say pasturized or have added junk, is my Balkan yogourt..

I'm going to have to see if I can find untreated organic sour cream or buttermilk to go ahead with this project.

Joyfull, any dairy sold in this country under a federal licence has to be aged 60 days if it comes from raw milk. That's why only ripened cheese qualifies, not buttermilk, sour cream or even yoghurt. You probably won't get any added benefits from using organic products; just look at the ingredient list for a pure and simple product.

[Whitey Ford]

My down and dirty method is pour a pint of heavy cream in a bowl. Add 2-3/4? tablespoons of sour cream and whisk. Cover and let sit in fridge for a day. Whisk again before use.

Chefguy had a more complicated method involving lemon juice.

But, what he said also was that he likes to add white pepper, especially if it is to be used with a chocolate dessert. He says the peppercorn flavor goes really good w/chocolate.

[Littlemama]

i use the heavy cream, butter milk, and lemon juice. I would post the recipe but others would correct it and all I can tell you is that I have been doing this sort of stuff for years. all my recipes work...if you want more info, contact me direct via PM>

[Luc_H]

Originally Posted by Anneke

Joyfull, any dairy sold in this country under a federal licence has to be aged 60 days if it comes from raw milk. That's why only ripened cheese qualifies, not buttermilk, sour cream or even yoghurt.

Anneke,
That explains a lot of things!
I knew this was the case for cheese made of raw milk but isn't yogurt, sour cream and buttermilk (and the like) made from pasteurized milk? If yes then why is it sold pasteurized (not live)?.

By the way Littlemama,
the point of participating to a forum is to participate in an open discussion which comes with kudos and criticism. The point for all of us to participate is to have access to many points of views then to draw our own conclusions or take away insight on what we are interested in.

In any event, your situation when it comes to milk is quite different based on the fact you have access to raw milk (live with bacteria) which is the more traditional way of making any cultured dairy product.

Luc H

[Anneke]

Luc, yoghurt, buttermilk etc is always sold pasteurized, and you'd be hard pressed to find a farmer who would even give you a taste of the unpasteurized stuff even within the confines of his property. Remember the Michael Schmidt story? 60 days is a bit of a "magic number", but it has been proven that E.Coli is rendered 99% inactive after the prescribed aging. To allow the sale of dairy aged less than that would be counterproductive for those who support choice because it would bring even more scrutiny on those who work with raw milk products. Raw milk artisans are highly respectful of their product and HACCP measures, for the most part, but they are swimming upstream and few could handle the additional cost of added scrutiny and bad press. The industry is simply not ready for it; imagine the backlash should just one person get sick from what could be a raw milk product after the rules were loosened?

Fresh dairy with live cultures are still available in pasteurized form, nevertheless; from what I understand it just means they've been added back into the mix in a scientifically controlled fashion.

[Ishbel]

Thankfully, I can go to any of about 10 local supermarkets/small shops and get all the creme fraiche I need!

[Luc_H]

Anneke,
That confirms many things for me... like making yogurt from yogurt is sluggish.

To Ishbel... bpprrruuuupps! (pulling my tongue (and cheek)) wink and grin!