The Best Homemade Sour Cream Recipe: Thick, Tangy & Creamy

Ever run out of sour cream right when you need it? No worries—I’ve got you! Homemade Sour Cream is easy to make and tastes WAY better than store-bought! Just a couple of simple ingredients and a little time, and you’ll have rich, creamy, tangy sour cream made from scratch.

Homemade Sour Cream

Y’all, making your own sour cream at home is a game changer!

It’s got a great tangy flavor, but without all the added thickeners and weird stuff in store-bought sour cream.

The best part? It’s so easy to make homemade sour cream, and you only need a small amount of simple ingredients!

This stuff is perfect for all your favorite dishes—burrito casserole, enchilada meatball casserole, nachos, tacos, and oh my gosh, you must try it with my crockpot taco dip!

When I use my homemade sour cream in baking or in sweet things like my cheesecake pancakes or Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cheesecake it really makes a huge difference in flavor.

Once you try this simple method, I bet you’ll be whipping up your next batch before the first one’s even gone!

Why Make Your Own Sour Cream?

There are plenty of good reasons to make your own sour cream instead of grabbing a tub from the grocery store.

First off, homemade just tastes better!

It’s got a very distinct richness that you won’t find in store-bought sour cream.

Plus, you don’t have to worry about all those artificial thickeners that often get added to sour cream.

Why You’ll Love This Homemade Sour Cream

If you’ve never made your own sour cream before, get ready, because you’re never going to want to use store-bought sour cream again! It’s easy, delicious, and way better than anything you’ll find at the grocery store.

Here’s why you’ll love it:

• Simple Ingredients, No Junk: This recipe uses just heavy whipping cream and fresh lemon juice—that’s it!
• Super Easy to Make: Just mix heavy cream and lemon juice in a mason jar, cover with a paper towel, secure with a rubber band, and let it sit at room temperature. The best part? No need to babysit it—just stir and enjoy!
• Creamy, Tangy, and Delicious: This stuff is rich, smooth, and full of tangy flavor.
• Better Than Store-Bought: Store-bought sour cream is often loaded with added thickeners and doesn’t have the same fresh taste. This version is made the old-fashioned way, just like traditional sour cream, giving you the best results every time.
• Save Money & Skip the Extra Cost: Making your own sour cream at home costs less than buying plastic tubs of commercial sour creams. Plus, you can make as much or as little as you need!

How to Make Sour Cream

So now you’re all excited to make your very own sour cream from scratch, right?

You’re going to feel like a professionally domesticated and from-scratch kind of gal when you tell everyone that YOU made the sour cream!

Ingredients for Homemade Sour Cream

This homemade sour cream recipe couldn’t be easier to make. It only takes two simple ingredients, but trust me, the end result is rich, creamy, and tangy. It’ll be the best tasting sour cream you’ve ever tried!

• Heavy Whipping Cream: using heavy whipping cream gives the sour cream a thicker consistency and smooth texture. If you can get fresh cream or even raw cream, that’s even better! If you don’t have heavy cream, you can also try whole milk, but for the best results, stick to cream. Avoid ultra-pasteurized cream or UHT cream, since they don’t work as well for fermenting.
• Fresh Lemon Juice: This is what thickens the cream and gives it the tangy flavor. The acidity in lemon juice helps the cream turn into sour cream. Some folks like to use a starter culture or a sour cream culture for a more traditional sour cream, but my simple method gets the job done!

Tools You’ll Need

• Mason Jar: You’ll be letting the sour cream sit at room temperature, so a Mason jar works best. You can store it in a glass container or an airtight container later, but for the fermenting step, stick with a Mason jar. I like to sterilize the Mason jar before using it to make sour cream.
• Paper Towel & Rubber Band: Instead of sealing the jar with a lid, you’ll cover it with a paper towel and secure it with a rubber band. This lets air flow in while keeping out dust and bugs. You’ll want to let the beneficial bacteria do their thing without any unwanted surprises.

Steps to Making Homemade Sour CreamStep 1: Add Your Ingredients

Step 1: Add Your Ingredients: Grab your clean jar and pour in heavy whipping cream. Next, add the fresh lemon juice.

Step 2: Stir It Up: Give the mixture a few good stirs. You don’t need to go crazy—just make sure the lemon juice is evenly mixed into the cup of cream. This helps it start thickening up properly.

Step 3: Cover and Let It Sit: Now, instead of sealing the jar with a lid, cover it with a paper towel and secure it with a rubber band. Let the jar sit at room temperature for up to 24 hours.

Step 4: Stir and Enjoy: After 24 hours, check your final product. It should be nice and thick. Stir it up one more time, and that’s it—you’ve just made yourself real sour cream, from scratch!

Use it right away or store it in the fridge. The longer it chills, the thicker consistency it will have.

How Does Lemon Juice and Heavy Cream Turn Cream into Sour Cream?

It all comes down to the lemon juice! When you mix heavy whipping cream with fresh lemon juice, the acid in the lemon thickens the cream. It also changes the structure of the cream, making it thick and giving it a classic sour flavor.

What is UHT cream, and why shold I avoid using it for this recipe?

UHT cream (also called ultra-pasteurized cream) is heated at really high temperatures to make it last longer on the shelf. It’s not great for making homemade sour cream because it’s been processed so much that it won’t thicken up they way it needs to.

How Many Lemons Will I Need?

Depending on the size of the lemons, you’ll need 1-2 of them. It’s easiest to sqeeze all the lemon juice out with a citrus juicer like this one.

Help! My Sour Cream is Too Thin.

Don’t worry! If your sour cream isn’t as thick as you’d like, here are some reasons why and how you can possibly fix it.

1. Give it more time: Sometimes, it just needs a little more time. Let it sit at room temperature for a few more hours.
2. Use the right cream: If you used UHT cream, that could be the problem.
3. Let it chill: Once it’s done sitting out, pop it in the fridge. It’ll thicken up even more as it cools.

If you need it thicker right away, you can stir in a small amount of cream cheese or let it strain through a paper towel for a bit.

Print Pin

Homemade Sour Cream

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Servings 2 Cups

Equipment

• Mason Jar
• Paper Towel
• Rubberband

Ingredients

• 2 cups of Heavy Whipping Cream
• 4 tablespoons of FRESH Lemon Juice (1-2 lemons, depending on the size)

Instructions

• Start by adding your heavy whipping cream and fresh lemon juice to a mason jar.
• Give it a couple stirs.
• Place a paper towel on top and seal it with a rubber band, as shown.
• Leave it set out for up to 24 hours. Remove the paper towel, stir, and enjoy!