Can You Freeze Sour Cream?
Bitter product is a popular dairy products normally employed in recipes like dips, soups, and baked merchandise.
It doesn’t final too lengthy in the fridge, and it is frequently sold in big containers, foremost to spoilage and food squander. This leaves sour product lovers scrambling for techniques to increase the shelf everyday living of their most loved ingredient.
Fortunately, there are methods to maintain bitter cream securely for lengthier intervals of time.
This report describes no matter whether you can freeze sour product.
Refreshing sour cream can be securely kept in the refrigerator at or under 40℉ (4.4℃) for up to 2 weeks (1).
Like with most dairy products and solutions, you can freeze bitter product. Having said that, freezing bitter product is not generally advisable, as carrying out so affects its high quality.
Some men and women report unpleasant changes in the product’s texture as a result of freezing. In simple fact, bitter cream companies themselves even alert in opposition to freezing this solution thanks to destructive outcomes on its texture (2, 3).
That claimed, it’s flawlessly harmless to freeze sour product.
Summary
Even though it’s secure to freeze sour product, freezing the product or service will modify the product’s texture, which most people locate undesirable.
Refreshing sour product has a delicate, creamy texture and tangy flavor. This silky texture would make it the great choice for folding into soups, dips, and salads and bringing richness to cakes and bread.
Unfortunately, frozen sour product won’t have the same texture as fresh bitter cream.
Immediately after defrosting frozen sour cream, it’ll have a lumpy or grainy texture, unlike the sleek texture of new sour cream.
This is mainly because the sour cream separates in the course of the freezing and thawing process, this means the fat separates from the liquid element of the product. This sales opportunities to a coagulated texture, which may possibly be unappealing (
On the other hand, products and solutions built with bitter cream, this kind of as baked products and soups, can generally be frozen without the need of negatively impacting their texture or taste.
Summary
The freezing course of action triggers bitter cream to acquire on a grainy texture. On the other hand, it can nonetheless be used in some recipes.
Even although freezing sour product is not ordinarily recommended thanks to adverse results on texture, it can be completed if you have uncovered you with surplus bitter cream that you don’t want to spoil.
Even so, it’s important to only freeze refreshing sour product which is nonetheless secure to try to eat.
To freeze sour cream, just part it out into plastic or glass containers and stick them in the freezer.
Some individuals endorse using silicone ice dice trays to freeze sour product. As soon as frozen, you can transfer the cubes to one more container for very long-time period storage. These separately portioned cubes can then be conveniently added to soups, smoothies, and additional.
Keep in brain that freezer temperatures ought to be all over 0°F (-18°C) to maintain frozen meals safe and sound (
When there aren’t any recommendations concerning how prolonged sour product lasts in the freezer, the Foodstuff and Drug Administration (Fda) recommends storing yogurt in the freezer for up to 2 months. Given that bitter product is a similar merchandise, working with frozen sour product in just 2 months is a safe bet.
To thaw the sour product, keep it in the fridge right away right until it is fully thawed. You can also incorporate the frozen sour product specifically to recipes like soups and stews.
How to use frozen bitter product
In general, food stuff industry experts only propose making use of sour cream in cooking or baking. This suggests that frozen bitter product must not be made use of as a topping or to whip up your favourite salad dressing.
Applying sour cream that has been frozen and thawed in a recipe that calls for clean bitter product can result in an undesirable texture and is not proposed.
Nevertheless, frozen sour product can be employed in a number of techniques in the kitchen, including:
- incorporating frozen or frozen and thawed sour cream to soups and stews for a creamy texture
- incorporating frozen and thawed bitter cream into pancakes, cake, or muffin batter
- incorporating a little bit of frozen sour product to casseroles just before baking
- tossing frozen sour cream into smoothies for a enhance of satiating protein and fats
Immediately after defrosting frozen bitter cream, refreezing is not advised. Thawing and refreezing can guide to bacterial contamination, building the bitter product unsafe to take in (6).
Summary
Retail store sour cream in plastic or glass containers in the fridge. Use frozen sour cream as is, or permit it thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
If you have more contemporary sour product and do not want to squander it, you can freeze it.
When freezing it will outcome in unwanted improvements to its texture, you can include frozen or frozen and thawed sour product to a selection of recipes, this sort of as baked goods and soups.