Sour cream

Nobody has been able to reduce fresh cultured dairy products to scientific uniformity from one part of the world to another! Our crema fresca doesn’t taste or feel quite the same as U.S. sour cream, probably because our milk is handled and processed differently and does not support quite the same mix of acid-producing live cultures. It is a little closer to the U.S. brands of crème fraîche, though our version is yellower. Commercial sour cream is used in Tex-Mex and other U.S. versions of Mexican food as a substitute for crema fresca, and I use it too, though I would prefer to use the real thing! The recent immigration from Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador has led to a better substitute, a type of bottled sour cream manufactured in the United States and sold in Central American groceries under different names such as crema criolla or just crema. I have had good results with these products. For a flavorful multipurpose sour cream sauce.