Simple Creme Fraiche

How to make deliciously probiotic creme fraiche at home with two ingredients.

Home fermentation is such an important task to recover and maintain your health that I have nearly 100 cultured recipes on this blog….and counting!

The reason you need to be fermenting at home is because every type of cultured food contains a different array of beneficial microbial strains. Many of these are not available in a probiotic pill, and even if they were, it would be very expensive to mix and match probiotic brands to cover them all!

For example, homemade strained kefir whey made with a live starter has over 50 beneficial strains alone!

Buying the wide variety of fermented dishes you need for optimum health is either very expensive or simply not realistically procurable in most places (only artisans or very small companies produce these types of foods in most cases).

This latest ferment I’m publishing for your consideration is a simple creme fraiche that is delightful to add to soups and dips. It is also delicious as a substitute for (virtually worthless) commercial sour cream for any dishes you make that call for it either as an ingredient or at-the-table condiment.

I’ve published this recipe for homemade sour cream in years past, but it requires the use of homemade kefir (commercial kefir (and most yogurt) is fairly worthless probiotically because it’s fermented for a few hours at best, so don’t waste your money).

Buttermilk Starter

This latest creme fraiche rendition uses commercial, organic cultured buttermilk as the starter, which is easier for many people to obtain if they are new to the adventure of home ferments.

While not ideal (they are lowfat, ugh!), the convenient use of commercial buttermilk (buy in bottles, not toxic cartons) as the starter often can get people comfortable enough to jump into the arena of home fermentation, which is a net positive.

If you wish to try this recipe using homemade full fat buttermilk (there are 4 different ways to make it!), then by all means, make that excellent substitution to avoid lowfat organic buttermilk.

I do hope you try it if you’ve had any sort of trepidation about fermenting in the past. It is a traditional kitchen task that simply must be embraced for optimum health.