Hi, I'm from the harvest forum & now also the cooking forum. I make my own yogurt & butter. Last time I was culturing I also tried sour cream. I cultured it with yogurt (after realizing store sour cream doesn't have live cultures) and let it sit at about 80° overnight. Then for a few days I would alternately warm the jar under hot water & add a hot water bottle to the incubating cooler, and forget about it & let it sit at cold temperature (65°) for a while. I thought it would be ruined but it tastes like delicious sour cream, thick & pale yellow with some whey at the bottom.

My question is, have I done anything to make it unsafe to eat? My understanding is that once the lactic acid bacteria start winning the war for survival in there, nothing else wants to grow. I know you can't get too sick off spoiled milk, but I just want to check whether botulism is a concern. As a canner botulism is the one thing that puts the fear of god in me, and the jar was closed with not too much oxygen in there, and I don't know how sour it was how soon. Any dairiers know the story on botulism risk in home dairying?

Thanks for the help & I've enjoyed your posts on cheese that turned up in my sour cream search.

Melissa