the.com/sour cream
Milk that got bacteria involved and somehow came out classier for it.
means A thick, tangy cream made by fermenting cream with lactic-acid bacteria, used to dollop on everything from baked potatoes to borscht.
from A plain compound of "sour" and "cream," naming the food by exactly what it is. "Sour" descends from Old English sūr, a relative of similar words across the Germanic languages for anything sharp or tart. "Cream" came into English from Old French cresme, itself tangled up with Late Latin chrisma (the same root as "chrism," the holy oil) and an older Gaulish word for the fatty top of milk. The dish itself is old and widespread across Eastern and Central Europe — think smetana — where letting cream go pleasantly, deliberately sour was a way to thicken and preserve it long before refrigeration.
- deliberate spoilage
- Made by intentionally fermenting cream with live bacteria
- science name
- The tang comes from lactic acid, not age
- heat-shy
- Curdles if boiled, so add it last
- old roots
- Eastern Europeans have soured cream for centuries
- fake cousin
- Many store versions contain gelatin and starch fillers
creme fraiche — french dairy product with 40% fat content, aged 8-24 hours with lactic acid cultures
smetana — eastern european sour cream with 15-40% fat, used across russia, poland, and ukraine since medieval times
mexican crema — thinner mexican version with 25-30% fat, traditionally made by adding lime juice to heavy cream