Here's everything worth knowing about creme fraiche and how to pick it, what it is, how to store it, and what to use instead, plus 40 recipes to cook tonight.

What is creme fraiche?

Crème fraîche is a thick, cultured cream with a gentle tang and a soft, spoonable body somewhere between sour cream and whipped cream. The name is French for "fresh cream," and it is made by letting cream ferment slowly with lactic-acid bacteria until it thickens and turns faintly sour.

The thing that sets it apart is fat. Crème fraîche runs around 30 to 40 percent butterfat, far richer than sour cream's roughly 20 percent, and that high fat is the reason it behaves so well over heat.

Its flavor is mild. You get a clean, nutty richness and only a whisper of acidity, never the sharp bite of sour cream, which makes it as comfortable in dessert as it is in a pan sauce.

Cooking With Crème Fraîche

The headline trait is that crème fraîche will not curdle when you boil it. Because the fat is high and the protein is low, you can stir it straight into a simmering sauce or soup without the broken, grainy mess sour cream gives you.

That is why it finishes so many soups here, swirled in at the end for body and a little lift. You will find it in Roasted Carrot & Red Pepper Soup and in Chestnut Apple Soup.

Use it off the heat as a finishing spoonful, or cook it right into the dish. It enriches pan sauces for fish and chicken, as in Mustard Roasted Fish, and it loosens into a silky coating for pasta and braises like Amazingly Creamy Beef Stroganoff without splitting.

It also bakes beautifully. Folded into a custard it gives tarts and pies a dense, tangy richness, the trick behind Creme Fraiche Pumpkin Pie. Whisked with a little sugar and vanilla, it becomes a quick topping that holds its shape better than whipped cream and tastes less flat.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Crème fraîche loves acidity and sweetness in equal measure. It calms the heat in a chili or a plate of Chicken Enchiladas with Pasilla Chili Sauce, balances roasted roots and squash, and turns tart berries or dark chocolate into something grown-up.

Smoked salmon with a little caviar and chives is its classic savory partnership.

The most common mistake is buying it for tang and being disappointed. If you want a sour, assertive note, sour cream or yogurt is the better tool. Crème fraîche is about richness and smoothness, not bite.

The second mistake is whipping it like cream and walking away. It thickens fast and can turn grainy if overbeaten, so stop while it still falls softly from the whisk.

Substitutes

For a cooked sauce, heavy cream is the closest stand-in because it also resists curdling, though you lose the tang. Stir in a teaspoon of lemon juice per cup to mimic the sourness.

Sour cream works in cold or barely-warmed dishes and dips, but do not boil it. Temper it first and keep the heat low, or it will break.

Full-fat Greek yogurt brings the right thickness and more acidity, useful when you actually want tang, but it splits even more easily than sour cream over heat. Mascarpone is the swap for desserts and frostings where you want richness without much sourness.

You can also make your own. Stir 1 tablespoon of cultured buttermilk into 1 cup of heavy cream. Cover it loosely and leave it at warm room temperature for 12 to 24 hours until thick, then chill. The live cultures in the buttermilk do the work.

Buying and Storing

Look for crème fraîche near the sour cream and specialty cheese in the dairy case. The label should read like a short sentence: cream and live cultures, sometimes a thickener.

Check the fat content if you can. The richest versions, near 40 percent, give the best results in hot sauces.

It keeps well. Sealed and refrigerated at 40°F (4°C) or below, an unopened tub lasts to its printed date and often a week or two past it, because the acidity holds spoilage organisms back.

Once opened, use it within about two weeks and trust your nose: clean and tangy is fine, sharp or yeasty is not.

A little surface liquid or further thickening over time is normal, not spoilage. Stir it back in. Keep the tub on a shelf rather than the door, where the temperature swings. Never freeze it for a sauce, since freezing wrecks the texture and it weeps when thawed.

Quick facts

Where to find creme fraiche: Creme fraiche is usually found in the dairy section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

In Chinese

鲜奶油

British (UK) term

Creme fraiche

en français

crème fraiche

en español

crema fresca

Recipes using creme fraiche

There are 40 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 40 recipes