Crème fraîche

Crème fraîche

What it is

Cream left to ripen with its own lactic bacteria until it thickens and turns faintly sour. That acidity is the whole trick: it holds the fat together, so crème fraîche can boil in a sauce without splitting where ordinary cream curdles.

In the kitchen

It is the safe cream for anything acidic — lemon, wine, tomato. Add ordinary cream to those and it will split.

Goes with

Shallot Chives Lemon Button mushroom Potato Dill Salmon Black pepper

Same species

Thick double cream

Also used with

Lactic acid Smoked eel Beluga lentil Beluga caviar White sturgeon caviar Adriatic sturgeon caviar

Something wrong here, or missing? Tell us