3 days Ago By Jolene Thym, correspondent
If mayonnaise or plain yogurt aren’t your thing, the key to adding creamy richness to everything from soups to baked goods is a generous spoonful of great quality sour cream. Delicious enough to eat straight out of the tub, sour cream is silky and buttery, with a delicious tang that instantly elevates sauces, turns potatoes and vegetables into luscious mouthfuls, and bumps up flavor in pancakes and muffins. Not convinced? Think beef stroganoff, onion dip and cheesecake.
It’s no wonder shelves are crowded with colorful tubs of the stuff, now more than ever. But do they all taste the same — or nearly the same? Curious, we cracked open a dozen brands of full fat sour cream, all made from the same basic ingredients. The conclusion: Nearly every brand has its own unique flavor and texture.
Some are so irresistibly rich, it’s hard not to scoop up bite after bite. Others are merely meh. All sour cream is made by adding enzymes to cream or milk and incubating it at 72 degrees, until it becomes thick and develops its characteristic sour flavor.
Variations in flavor are due to the source and quality of the milk, the fat content, the type of enzymes and how it’s processed. Sour creams that are made quickly and in large batches tend to be bland. Versions made in smaller batches and allowed to ferment longer often result in more flavorful sour cream.
Great sour cream starts with top-quality milk from carefully bred and fed cattle. The mixture is carefully fermented, until it tur.
