sour cream

Commercial sour cream has 18-20 percent fat and has been treated with a lactic acid culture to add its characteristic tang. Light sour cream has 40 percent less fat because it is made from half-and-half. Nonfat sour cream is thickened with stabilizers.

Ingredient

Season: available year-round

How to store: Refrigerate up to one week after date stamped on container. Discard if mold forms on the cream's surface.

Matches well with: caviar, fruit, potatoes

Substitutions: 1 cup plain low-fat or nonfat yogurt (in cooked recipes, + 1 tbsp cornstarch) = 1 cup low-fat sour cream; For a slimmer version of it with only 0.5g fat then use 1 cup low fat ricotta cheese 1 cup plain low fat yogurt 1 tbsp lemon juice freshly groung black pepper pinch salt Combine ingredients throughly in a food processor. Keep refrigerated You can also make your own sour cream by adding one teaspoon of lemon juice to each 5 fluid ounces of fresh single cream (table cream).