It's a cultured product. The good bacteria grow and crowd out bad ones.

exactly what Christine says. Especially if you start with quality dairy.

I believe both of you, and I don't mean to sound like a smart aleck, but in the back of my mind I keep wondering, so why does the grocery store refrigerate the stuff?

I'm sure it's safe, and good, based on the amount of people here who make it. But I can sympathize; I might need a couple years to forget the last sippy cup that got found after a few days under the sofa, before I have an appetite play around with homemade CF!

bb...I make my own all the time the "sit out" time is to allow the bacterial cultures to act on the cream and "sour" it which accounts for the tart taste. Once this happens the Creme Fraiche must be refrigerated to prevent spoiling.

The supermarket stuff is exactly the same, the cultures were developed at warmer temperatures when it was made then must be refrigerated....just like the homemade stuff.

Just like yogurt. It's cultured warm then refrigerated.

Carol

heavy cream, not sour cream-- you want it less fermented than sour cream, I think.

There are many foods which are fermented "on purpose". Wine, cheese, sour cream, creme fraiche, butter milk, yogurt, sauerkraut, etc.

The grocery store refrigerates all that stuff which has achieved its desired amount of fermentation at appropriate temperatures. You should do this too. But creme fraiche, yogurt, or whatever, needs to be at room temperature, or slightly higher while fermentation is taking place.

Jim

Hi Everyone,
Would someone please post the recipe for this? Thanks.

Sapphires

Below recipe is from Emeril Lagasse on the foodnetwork site. I have not tried it. I discovered that the grocery I go to actually had some creme fraiche (obviously, I was too quick to judge their offerings), although it was so well hidden that the store manager didn't even know they had it. I lucked upon the guy who stocks the refrigerated cases in the deli area and he showed me where it was.

1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons buttermilk
Directions
In a bowl, combine the cream and buttermilk. Cover with a clean kitchen cloth in a warm, draft-free place and let sit until thickened, but still a pourable consistency, 12 to 16 hours. Stir and refrigerate until ready to use. (Can be refrigerated for up to 1 week.)

1 cup whipping cream mixed with 2 tablespoons buttermilk.
Combine well in glass bowl or jar and cover.
Let stand at room temperature (about 70 degrees F.) for 8 to 24 hours, or until thickened. Cooler takes longer, warmer goes pretty fast.
Stir well and refrigerate.
"They" say it's good for about 10 days but I've had it two weeks or longer and been fine.

Sometimes I think "good for 10 days" is food safety code for "we don't really think it ever spoils, but we don't want you to get food poisoning and sue us, so we're setting an arbitrary upper limit" :-P

jessica, your comment reminds me of an incident which can still set my sister and me off into gales of laughter. Our father had just married wife #3. It was the first time we had been to their house for dinner. Sis and I were trying to be helpful. Wife3 told us to put the sour cream on the table. Sis got it out of the fridge and noticed it was waaaaay out of date, which she mentioned. Wife3 said, "well it is already soured, so what does it matter?" Needless to say, we didn't partake of the sour cream.