WAY too much for baked potatoes.

April 20, 2010 7:44 AM

What can I do with 4 litres of European-style sour cream?

I got a huge supply of almost out-of-date "smântână fermentată" (roughly translated from Romanian that's "fermented cream") from my employer today, and I have no idea what to do with it. I'd like to make some kind of milk product from it, but I can't find recipes in Romanian online and am not finding much in English, either, in part because I'm not sure what to search for--cream? crème fraîche? It's also 12% butterfat, if that makes any difference.

Suggestions? Cheese, butter, something?

posted by the luke parker fiasco to food & drink (7 answers total)

Could you put it in a coffee filter overnight to drip and make a sort of sour cream cheese out of it? Might be nice on bagels or toast.
posted by LN at 8:04 AM on April 20, 2010

Make cakes and freeze them!

This cinnamon-chocolate chip sour cream cake uses 16 ounces.

This chocolate sour cream cake uses 8 ounces. (Just make the cake and forget about the peanut butter and ganache. It's amazing by itself. Or put another sort of icing on it. Like a sour cream frosting!)

Ina Garten has a sour cream coffee cake.

And apparently sour cream cakes are very popular in the south. Here's a google search for sour cream cake on southernfood.about.com. The lemon one looks awesome.
posted by elsietheeel at 8:08 AM on April 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

In Russian it is called smetana and here is the wikipedia page giving examples of its usage in many cuisines. It doesn't curdle at high temps and doesn't melt in the oven so it's nice in sauces, soups, and things like that. Anyhow if you google 'smetana' you'll find many recipes in English. Also it's usually much more fat so I think basically you have just sour cream.
posted by acidic at 8:09 AM on April 20, 2010

How about ice cream or a giant cheesecake?

You can then freeze the cheesecake in individual portions.

And now I'm hungry.
posted by newpotato at 8:14 AM on April 20, 2010

Ugh, smetana... I don't think you can use it in a cheesecake...
posted by Unhyper at 10:28 AM on April 20, 2010

4L? That makes a lot of Beef Stroganoff!
posted by Citrus at 11:03 AM on April 20, 2010

Boil potatoes. Butter a baking dish and put a layer of sliced potatoes in the bottom, then spread the sour cream on top, another layer of potatoes and so on. Make the last layer sour cream, and sprinkle on some paprika for looks. Bake it in a moderate oven (say 350F) until the top is brown and yummy-looking. This is so good.
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:45 AM on April 21, 2010