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Inspired by the kefir question, I was wondering if anyone had attempted to make 'yoghurt' from cream?

I have access to local raw grass fed cream, only problem being that it goes off much quicker than I'd like. I was hoping that I could ferment it to get a longer shelf life. Would this be feasible? Has anyone tried it? What did it taste like?

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8 Answers

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I suggest that you make butter and crème fraiche. Crème fraiche is a cultured cream. It basically takes your cream and adds bacteria to it to sour it. So it "lasts longer" or at least tastes better while it lasts so long. ;) It's like making yogurt, but with different bacteria. It's also known as French Sour Cream! It's great in broth soups, over steamed veggies, or with baked root veggies.

Butter

Leave the cream on the counter for a day. Put half of it in a food processor and process until it separates. Pour off the liquid. This is butter milk. Save it for the creme fraiche. The yellow solids that remain are the butter. Pour some filtered cold water in with the butter and process again. This is called washing the butter. Pour off the water. Discard it. Scoop your butter into an airtight container and store in the fridge or in a butter keeper on the counter.

Yum!

Crème Fraiche (cultured cream)

Take that butter milk (from the butter-making)... Take about 2 tablespoons and add it to a cup of fresh cream. Leave it in a warm window or a warm spot for 25 hours. It should thicken and taste sour. Transfer to "cold storage" aka the fridge.

When you're ready to make your next batch, you don't need to make butter again. Just use a few tablespoons of leftover crème fraise from the first batch to add to the cream to make the next batch! Ta da! Easy!

My crème fraiche has been in the fridge for several months just hangin' out. Last night we had some on our broccoli. Tasted great!

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2 
 I've made my own butter a number of times. You don't need to let it set out for a day. Supposedly the butter forms more easily at room temp. I've not noticed a difference. Also, the absolute easiest way to make butter is fill a jar half-full with cream, add a wine cork or similar to help agitate and shake with moderate vigor. I can go from cream to butter in 3-5 minutes and the only clean up is one little jar. Washing is optional, but any remaining milk will sour in a few days otherwise. – PortlandAllan Apr 22 2010 at 19:52
Allan, if you want sweet cream butter, you make the butter right out of the fridge. If you want normal butter, you let the cream sour a bit first. And for what it's worth, I find pressing a button on my food processor much easier than shaking a jar for five minutes. ;) – gilliebean♦ Apr 22 2010 at 21:32
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 My understanding was for cultured butter, one still needed to add a proper starter to the cream. Is wild fermentation, as it were, dependable here? I didn't think it was. As for pushing a button being easier than shaking a jar... sure, but who cleans the food processor? – PortlandAllan Apr 22 2010 at 22:33
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 Well, now I don't know. You obviously have something that is working. I'll have to give the "wild ferment" a try and see what happens for me. – PortlandAllan Apr 23 2010 at 1:58
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 Thanks guys, GREAT suggestions here! Never thought of creme fraiche! – sarah-ann Apr 23 2010 at 12:42
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I've made creme fraiche easily from local raw cream. Thick stuff, it comes in a jar like latex paint consistency from the dairy (they use a spinning separator). I just poor it out into a shallow bowl, and cover with a cloth at room temps from 65-85f. The warmer it is, the quicker it "sets up". The high fat, super low lactose content allows for a less volatile fermenting and growth of the native bacteria.

Every 8-12 hours I give it a stir and gage the thickness. Once it gets thicker than sour cream, I give it a last stir, seal it up in an air tight container and pop into the fridge. It comes out perfect every time!

http://www.kendallfarmscremefraiche.com/

I've bought this and mine compares favorably.

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I make yogurt with half 'n half or with whipped cream. It tastes delicious and isn't as tart as whole milk yogurt. It also makes it much easier to digest. The process is the same as making homemade yogurt with any other milk.

Check out here how to make whipped cream from yogurt cream: http://heal-balance-live.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-make-scd-whipped-cream.html

Check out here how to make homemade yogurt: http://scdkatfood.blogspot.com/2008/04/scd-yogurt-tips.html

It would keep for 3 weeks in the fridge no problem.

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 I've done this, too. You'll never go back! – Ambimorph Apr 22 2010 at 22:24
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 Yep, yogurt made from half & half is delicious! – Nicole Apr 23 2010 at 2:39
I, do, too. I vary the mixture of heavy cream, light cream and half-&-half, as I please. High fat yoghurt is delightful! – PaleoGran Jan 10 2011 at 20:36
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I have a book that tells you how to ferment and eat a lot of fruits and vegs. It also tells me to buy whole fresh raw milk from a farm where the cows are turned out in fresh grass pasture. I have followed thier instructions,which could not be any easier. I first get a half gallon of raw milk, put it in a half gallon wide mouth canning jar, wrap it with a cloth to keep the light out of it and let it stand on the counter three or four days to ferment and get thick. Then i filter out the whey from the thick cream which by the way turns out to be very rich and creamy sour cream cheese. I than use the whey to make great fermented pickels in 2-3 days. The cream and whey will keep for over 6 weeks in the refrig . If interested check out the book .

                              NOURISHING TRADITIONS  by  Sally Fallon
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How do you filter out the whey? – kylemurphy Dec 10 2010 at 3:15
Lots of ideas for culturing milk and cream have already been talked about here. I will say that I use powdered cultures I send away for instead of store bought yogurts and the like, as it is more reliable. I am still experimenting with using a higher percentage of cream in my homemade cultured milk products although the cream did separate to the top of my yogurt the other day (not bad tho) If I want to filter whey from my yogurt I will scoop some into my gold coffee filter and let it sit until most of the whey seeps out. Makes a delicious cheese like item. – wood Feb 17 2011 at 20:31
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I make yoghurt using four parts half and half with one part heavy whipping cream. It makes a nice, thick yoghurt. I use a starter from the previous batch and leave the yoghurt in the yoghurt maker for 18 hours.

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I just found 4-500 ml containers of cream on sale for 99 cents each (usually $3.49) and snapped them up! (They "expired" yesterday but I'm drinking one straight right now and it tastes great). I'm going to try making some butter and creme fraiche - this thread is full of great info.

The bottles are glass and I can take them back to the store for a $1 credit, so technically I'll be getting paid to enjoy all this delicious local cream. Best deal ever.

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The best way we found was to use a large strainer lined with a heavy dish towel.

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I have tried most of the home made recipes found on the internet with a variety of success, some good and some not so good. Most of which involve heavy or whipping cream with buttermilk as the fermenting agent.

Yesterday I got my hands on a quart of raw Guernsey cream and I am really looking forward to making Creme Fraiche. I read the previous posts above by Tim Rangitsch and Roger Shanafelt and wonder is that easy? I do not need to add any bacteria culture? I have read where people add cheese making bacteria culture when using store bought milk(s). Any advice would be appreciated... Thanks...

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