Cooking with Sour Cream and Buttermilk

Note: This edition of Cooking with Sour Cream and Buttermilk has been updated to include Metric equivalents.


Long ago, our great-grandmothers and their mothers before them knew that milk and cream which had soured naturally did something very special for their cooking. Never were biscuits so marvelously tender and flaky, other hot breads so ready to melt in the mouth, cakes so feathery-light and delicate, as when they were made with soured milk or buttermilk. Sour cream gave an extra-flavorful richness and smoothness to gravies and many main dishes, to sauces for vegetables, to salad dressings and to many desserts.


Today, homemakers are learning all over again what their grandmothers knew about the happy influence of sour cream and buttermilk on cooked foods. Dairies are responding to their demand and producing sour cream and buttermilk which are more uniform in acidity and consistency than the naturally home-soured products used to be. That is because they are made under controlled conditions from pasteurized Grade A cream and milk. Both have a clean, fresh flavor and the sour cream has a thick, smooth texture; they are not really “sour” at all—just “cultured.”


If you are already a sour cream and buttermilk addict, the recipes in this book will add to your repertoire of dishes made with these delicious dairy products. If you have never used the products (except for a buttermilk biscuit now and then, or perhaps a sour cream salad dressing), these recipes can be your introduction to the wonderful new flavor world of sour cream and buttermilk cookery.