How to Make Raw Sour Cream

I didn’t realize I could love sour cream until I started making my own delicious homemade sour cream from scratch using raw cream. This Raw Sour Cream recipe is literally one of the easiest things you could make using raw dairy products. It is nutrient dense, full of gentle probiotics and delicious!

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Homemade, fresh sour cream honestly requires such little effort and tastes 1 million times better than store-bought sour cream. If you can get your hands on some raw cream you will definitely want to try this recipe. It is thick and creamy and tangy and all of the things really good sour cream should be. And so easy to make! There are actually multiple ways to make sour cream, but this method is the easiest of all of the different options. This is one of my favorite traditional recipes using a super easy technique. And it’s so delicious on all your favorite dishes – especially Mexican food. I also love that you get to skip all of the artificial thickeners and other unnecessary ingredients in sour cream you find at the grocery store.

raw milk and cream

Quite a while ago, we started sourcing raw milk from a local farm near us. Raw milk is probably my favorite way to  boost my family’s nutrition! Raw milk is full of so many bioavailable nutrients that are lost during the pasteurization process. Unless you have your own family milk cow, raw milk isn’t always easy to find. Ask around in your local “crunchy” community, or use this RAW MILK FINDER.

Raw milk has certainly been on the rise in popularity over the last couple of years. Which is amazing because there are so many health benefits in raw milk! The Raw Milk Institute says, “Numerous scientific studies have shown that raw milk is correlated with decreased rates of asthma, allergies, eczema, fever and respiratory infections. Raw milk also aids in recovery from antibiotic use, and provides many gut-healthy probiotics and enzymes.” Read more about the benefits of raw milk here. 

is raw milk safe?

The first question people always have when they find out my family only consumes raw milk is, “is raw milk safe?!” Raw milk is safe as long as you are careful about where you are getting it from. If your milk is coming from a small, clean, healthy farm then yes! The milk will be full of bioavailable (absorbable) vitamin A, D, and K, phosphorus, zinc, and omega-3 fatty acids. Not to mention many beneficial bacteria (great for gut health), enzymes and probiotics! If it is coming from a conventional dairy farm, then no. Traditional dairy farms are usually really large scale and the cows are forced to produce more milk than they would naturally. This leads to mastitis which leads to infection which leads to antibiotic use… never drink raw milk that was intended to be pasteurized.

The process of pasteurization wasn’t invented until 1864. Until then, the only milk that people had ever consumed was raw milk. When people are concerned about the safety of raw milk, I always remind them that EVERYONE drank raw milk up until 5 minutes ago! Although it is done in the name of safety, pasteurization destroys all of the good bacteria and enzymes. This is why we opt to consume milk the way we believe God intended it, with all vitamins, minerals and proteins intact.

ready to try raw milk? check out these other raw dairy recipes –

• Raw Milk Yogurt in the Instant Pot 

• Raw Milk Ice Cream

how to make raw sour cream

This delicious Raw Sour Cream only requires 2 simple ingredients and a little bit of time. You will need:

raw cream

mesophilic starter culture

If you are buying raw, fresh milk, leave the milk in the refrigerator for 24 hours and the cream will rise to the top. Skim the cream off of the top carefully without dipping down into the milk. This is like heavy cream that you would buy from the store, but it has not been through the pasteurization process.

Fill a clean jar (quart size) with fresh cream and gently stir in the mesophilic culture. Cover with cloth or cheese cloth and a rubber band and allow to sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours. This is the culturing process. The cultured cream will naturally thicken as the cultures develop in the cream. The end result is best quality sour cream full of healthy fats and probiotics.

what is mesophilic culture?

Mesophilic culture is a starter that contains active cultures that are cultured at a low temperature. This means that it can be used at room temperature and requires no additional heat. Unlike mesophilic culture, thermophilic cultures require a higher temperature like my Raw Milk Yogurt recipe, for example. CLICK HERE FOR THE MESOPHILIC CULTURE I USE. Because this recipe requires a very small amount, one bottle lasts me a long time. And it is kept in the freezer so it can be stores for quite a while without going bad. Sour cream can also be cultured using a sour cream starter or milk kefir grains, but using a mesophilic culture is the easiest way, in my opinion.

additional info for making homemade raw sour cream

• You should not leave your cultured cream on the counter long enough that you start to see bubbles form. If you see bubbles, transfer to the fridge right away.

• If you cultured the cream for 24 hours and it is not as thick as you would like it to be, refrigerate for an additional 24 hours for an even thicker sour cream.

• If you don’t want to end up with a quart of sour cream, you can cut this recipe in half and it will work just fine. Otherwise, make this Sourdough Blueberry Coffee Cake with the extra sour cream. 🙂

• Store this sour cream in an air-tight container for up to two weeks in the refrigerator.

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