An Easy Instant Pot Sour Cream Recipe Using Just Real Cream and Starter
Table of contents
Homemade sour cream is really very easy to make. By making it ourselves, we know exactly what is in it, since it’s just high quality cream cultured with a real starter culture.
INGREDIENTS
We use an Horizon cream and a starter culture from Cultures for Health. The quality of the ingredients you start with is very important, especially when there are only two ingredients in the item you are making. And brands differ. So, we mention the brands and explain why on our page on ingredients. Sour cream that you can buy in the grocery store is often half milk. We prefer to make the sour cream entirely of cream, but you could make it with half Horizon milk as well.
No Affiliates Statement
We call this our “no affiliates” statement because we accept no advertising, have no affiliates and accept no payment. We are not paid to mention brands – we just love buying the best, sharing that information and saving the planet at the same time. The effort put into writing and photographing the blog is solely based on our dedication to the cause.
MAKING SOUR CREAM IN AN INSTANT POT
We use an Instant Pot because it holds the temperature just where you need it for hours, making culturing very easy. Sour cream is made from a mesophilic culture, which translates to “medium-loving”, indicating that it thrives at medium temperatures and is destroyed at a higher temperature. The culture thrives at temperatures between 74 and 77 degrees F, and is destroyed at 113 degrees F. The Instant Pot Ultra has a yogurt setting that can be adjusted to low, where it will maintain a constant temperature of 90 degrees. This makes culturing sour cream very easy.
Because this is a cultured product, it is important that everything is clean. Start with fresh cream that is not near its expiration date. Remove the sealing ring on the Instant Pot lid. Thoroughly wash the inner pot, the lid and the sealing ring with very hot water.
The cream is first heated to 145 degrees F. This causes the proteins to tighten and will produce a thicker sour cream. The temperature is then allowed to drop to 77 degrees F before the starter culture is added. Then the mixture is kept at 90 degrees F for 16 hours while it thickens.
It is possible to make successive batches from a few tablespoons of a previous batch, but we always start with fresh starter culture to make sure it is strong and the cream is kept clean. The starter culture comes in powdered form in tiny packets and conveniently stores for months in the refrigerator. It also comes with instructions that we don’t exactly follow.
Equipment
- thermometer
CHOOSING BRANDS:
For certain products, the choice of brand will make a big difference in the outcome of the recipe and in your carbon footprint. So, for those products, we have listed the brand. We are not paid to mention a brand and have no affiliates.
Ingredients
- 1 quarts Horizon cream up to 4 quarts
- 1 package Cultures for Health sour cream starter culture
Instructions
- Remove the sealing ring and thoroughly wash the inner pot and the lid with very hot water. Leave the sealing ring off. This is a cultured product so it is important that everything is clean.
- Add 1-4 quarts of cream to the inner pot of the Instant Pot. Place the lid on the Instant Pot and lock. The valve can be in either the sealed or unsealed position. Select the "yogurt" setting and change the time to 45 minutes and the temperature to 145 degrees F. This step will result in a thicker sour cream.
- After 45 minures at 145 degrees F, remove the inner pot and allow the temperature to drop.
- When the temperature of the cream has dropped to 77 degrees F, add the starter culture and whisk it in for a few seconds.
- Return the inner pot to the Instant Pot. Place the lid on the Instant Pot and lock. The valve can be in either the sealed or unsealed position. Select the "yogurt" setting and adjust it to "low". It will show a temperature of 90 degrees F. Adjust the time to 16 hours and start.
- After 16 hours the sour cream should be fairly thick. Transfer it to a glass container and store it in the refrigerator. It can be stored for 2-3 weeks.
Nutrition
WHY THIS RECIPE IS SUSTAINABLE:
Check out the chart on the blog post to see how food choices affect climate change. This recipe uses responsible brands and items that are lower on the chart and the production creates less greenhouse gas.
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Photos byTony Fitzgerald Photography