Learning how to make sour cream from raw milk is much more simple than one might think. With only a few ingredients, this delicious homemade sour cream is full of active cultures and beneficial bacteria that store-bought sour cream just can’t provide.

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Almost every single homemade sour cream recipe you find out there will need a sour cream starter that is bought from somewhere. Unlike traditional recipes for raw sour cream, this easy technique requires simple ingredients that are a bit different. Therefore, you can start making your sour cream now instead of waiting for that starter to show up in the mail. You will be pleasantly surprised as this is one of the easiest things to make with just a little effort.

Homemade sour cream is much more healthy than it’s store-bought counterpart. Unlike the sour cream made from store-bought milk, this sour cream does not have any artificial thickeners or fake ingredients in it.

Supplies Needed to Make Sour Cream from Raw Milk

Glass Jar

Whisk or Wooden spoon

Ingredients

2 cups (475 ml) freshly pasteurized cream

¼ cup (60 ml) cultured buttermilk

How To Make Sour Cream From Raw Milk

• Before making your own sour cream, separate raw cream from either cow’s milk or goat’s milk, whatever your source of raw milk is.

• At this point, you can actually just leave a good quality raw cream on the counter and it will turn sour eventually. However, that could produce a different taste than what you are looking for and it takes a long time. So, with a little extra effort, adding a sour cream culture or cultured buttermilk will make a fresh sour cream in no time at all.

• Pasteurize the cream. Don’t worry about losing a bunch of good bacteria from the raw milk cream, the starter culture that we add to the cream will make more probiotics. Let the cream cool to room temperature after pasteurizing, between 68°F and 80°F.

• Whisk the buttermilk into the cream. Put a lid on the top of the jar and leave out on your kitchen counter for 8-12 hours.

• After 8-12 hours, check the sour cream. If you would like a thicker sour cream, leave it out for a few more hours. The end result will be a nice thick sour cream.

FAQ’S

How to make raw cream from raw milk?

Leaving a jar of raw milk in the fridge undisturbed will allow the cream to rise to the top. After that, you can remove the cream layer. For a step by step tutorial, check out this blog post on how to remove cream from raw milk.

How do you make sour milk from raw milk?

Just leaving the milk alone will cause it to start turning sour. Depending on the milking and handling practices, this could be in a week or maybe a month. For more information on that, check out this blog post on How Long Does Raw Milk Last?

How much sour cream do I use?

That is all dependent on your personal preferences. Most people prefer a dollop of sour cream on their favorite dishes like tacos. However, when I make things like mashed potatoes, I like to use about a cup of sour cream.

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