Buzz
Sour cream isn't widely known in Vietnamese cuisine. However, understanding what sour cream is and its versatile uses can lead to mouthwatering and enticing dishes! Let's explore with Mytour!
1. Understanding Sour Cream
Sour cream, also known as Sour Cream, is a product of fermenting fresh milk, combined with lactic acid, resulting in thickened and tangy goodness. With its white color, smooth texture, and delightful aroma, sour cream contains 12 – 16% fat.
Sour cream is often mistaken for Greek yogurt due to its color and consistency, but they are completely different.Unlike heavy cream or whipping cream (which are also dairy products), sour cream has high heat tolerance, making it resistant to curdling or separating during cooking processes.
2. The Uses of Sour Cream
In Health
Certain vitamins require fat for optimal absorption. Sour cream, with its fatty composition, aids the body in absorbing fat-soluble vitamins more effectively.
Combining foods rich in vitamin C with those containing fats enhances vitamin absorption.
Additionally, sour cream contains lactic acid (the main component in yogurt and yakult) – which functions to provide probiotics, stimulate digestion, and benefit gut health.
In Culinary
With its smooth creamy texture, gentle tanginess, and richness, especially its resistance to curdling or separating at high temperatures, sour cream finds versatile application in cooking. Both savory and sweet dishes can incorporate sour cream, elevating their flavor profiles.
Sour cream is most commonly used in baking recipes or desserts. It's often whipped to accompany cookies, cakes, or bread. In cake decoration, sour cream is favored for its mild tanginess, harmonizing with the sweetness of the cake, while its firmness helps maintain the shape of the frosting.
Image: Collected
The delightful aroma of sour cream enhances the flavor of dishes, making them more special and appealing. Additionally, sour cream serves as an ingredient in preparing various beverages.
For savory dishes, sour cream is commonly used in salad dressings, meat marinades, and more.
3. Dishes Using Sour Cream
Sour Cream, with its gentle tanginess and creamy texture, can be used in both savory dishes (such as pasta, pizza, salads...) and sweet treats like ice cream, cakes, dipping sauces,...
Bakery items: pancakes, taco, sour cream cookies, pizza, Cream cheese souffle, coconut cake, New York Cheesecake,...
Image: @thecookingfoodie
Ice Cream: Sour Cream enhances the flavor of ice cream, providing a delightful taste without being overly rich or cloying like Whipping cream. Additionally, sour cream maintains a firmer texture, holding its shape well for ice cream making or cake decoration.
Sauces: Sour cream, combined with various spices, makes a perfect dipping sauce for baked potatoes, toasted bread (great for breakfast or appetizers). Furthermore, sour cream sauce mixture is ideal for spreading over grilled salmon, roasted chicken,...
Image: @caliclecups
Image: @reluctantentertainer
Savory Dishes: Lasagna, pizza, pasta, braised beef,...
Image: Collected
4. Making Sour Cream at Home
Ingredients Preparation:
- Whole Milk: 1/4 cup
- Heavy Cream: 1 cup
- Rice Vinegar: 3/4 tsp (lightly sour and not too strong)
- Lime Juice (optional)
Another Recipe:
- 500g fresh cream
- 200g unsweetened yogurt
- 10g lime juice
Method:
- Step 1: Mix whole milk and rice vinegar in a bowl, let it sit for 5 minutes until the mixture thickens and resembles yogurt.
- Step 2: Next, add 1 cup of heavy cream to the milk mixture and stir well.
- Step 3: Pour the mixture into a glass jar and cover tightly. Let it sit in a dry place at around 20 degrees Celsius for 1 day. Note: If the temperature is higher, the sitting time will be shorter. Monitor until the mixture thickens and has a slight sour smell. Store in the refrigerator.
5. Alternatives:
Light Cream: Sour Cream has a fat content of about 12 – 16%, similar to Light cream. However, due to its sour taste, you can replace Sour Cream with Fromage blanc, which has a fat content of 20%.
Fresh Cream: Alternatively, you can use fresh cream with a fat content of 15% and mix it with lime juice in a certain ratio to create a sour taste.
Heavy Cream: If you don't have Sour cream, you can use heavy cream with a fat content above 35%. Note that due to its high fat content, you need to adjust the ratio of Heavy cream to produce the best result.
Image: Collected
Reference Ratios:
- 1 cup (225 grams) (240 ml) sour cream = 1 cup (240 ml) (225 grams) unsweetened yogurt
- 1 cup (225 grams) (240 ml) sour cream = Condensed fresh cream (Heavy cream with over 35% fat content)
- 1 cup (225 grams) (240 ml) sour cream = 2/3 cup (160 ml) unsweetened fresh milk + ½ cup (75g) melted unsalted butter.
6. Where to Buy Sour Cream
Sour Cream is typically sold at a price range of around 150,000 – 180,000 VND/kg of cream powder. Sour cream can be easily purchased at baking ingredient stores or large supermarkets, foreign food supermarkets.
7. Usage Notes
This sour cream is not fully fermented and must be refrigerated like many dairy products.
Sour cream should be stored at temperatures between 2 – 5 degrees Celsius. If not used up, seal it tightly and store it in the refrigerator for 5 – 7 days.
Above are all the details about sour cream, from what sour cream is, how to use sour cream to make, store, etc. Hopefully with this information, you can incorporate sour cream into cooking more and create many appealing dishes. Don't forget to explore other baking ingredients on Mytour Blog!
See also:
- 2 Simple, Delicious Green Tea Cheesecake Recipes
- What is Agar Powder? Uses and Roles of Agar Powder in Cooking
