Creme de la Creme

II sometimes have recipes that call for creme fraiche, which is a cultured milk product like yogurt, and I find that it is hard to find in the usual stores. My understanding is that you can substitute sour cream for most purposes/recipes. I have also used heavy cream whipped to a similar consistency.

I thought I'd ask what people's experience of this was and if any substitute gave better results than others.

Sour cream is the best match as it offers some of the same acidic tang. If you have time, even better is to lighten the sour cream with a bit of some other dairy or even whipped cream, as the texture of sour cream is denser than that of creme fraiche.

[Jenise]

Jeff covered it!

Thanks - we did pork tenderloin with sour cream/caper/shallot/rosemary sauce. Worked well against a modest wine, a 1986 Gressier Grand Poujeaux (cru bourgeois).

I thought I'd ask what people's experience of this was and if any substitute gave better results than others.

Crème fraîche is almost trivially easy to make. Take a clean pint jar, add 2-3 Tbsp of organic buttermilk (you need the live bacteria) and fill with 35-40% whipping cream. cover with cheesecloth or a coffee filter and leave at room temperature for a couple of days, then seal up and refrigerate for another day. You'll then have very thick crème fraîche that'll last for a couple of weeks in the fridge (or longer if you're daring).

I've read that you can use yogurt with live bacteria instead of the buttermilk, although the result won't be quite as thick. I haven't tried it.

Sounds delicious!
A little surprised that not easy to find creme fraiche in Vancouver. I know BC is far less Franco-philic than eastern Canada, but even here is NY suburbs all 3 of my local groceries usually carry,
Years ago that wasnt as true, and I know I once did a thing where you mix buttermilk and cream and let it sit for hours to sub. Now it's probably harder to find buttermilk than creme fraiche hre.
In about 1999/2000 I was in local grocery with a French friend who wanted to cook me dinner. She had a list and asked me where to find the liquid cheese. I was confused (and appalled)- Cheese whiz? Velveeta? After walking around store I finally said "what is it in French?" "Creme Fraiche". "That's what we call it here too" (at time grocery didn't carry, but I knew cheese store that did,

[Jenise]

Great story, Dale! Made me smile.

Vancouver is very cosmopolitan from the food end but it is just a question of finding where you can get things and keeping a list. My local, that had creme fraiche in little flat tubs like you get sour cream in, suddenly discontinued that (maybe I was the only one buying it?) and then brought in a glass jar half the size at double the price.

Not the sort of fresh product I'd buy online but I was looking for something else recently - $6 when I found it - $20 on Amazon - just because they think that some impatient people would rather just order it than shop - and anyone that does that deserves what they get.