Sour cream is not sold in stores where I live. I found a sour cream recipe. This asked me to put some cream in a bowl, add white vinegar, then let it sit in the refrigerator for one hour. I used some cream called “UHT thickened cream” and added some drops of white rice vinegar.
The taste is okay, but it is liquid like milk and not thick like the sour cream sold in stores in the United States. How can I thicken this sour cream?
You need more vinegar for it to thicken. I make salad dressing with cream as the oil and when I stir in the vinegar, it becomes quite thick. Unfortunately, it will probably have a strong vinegar taste in your recipe (which turns out to be okay in a salad dressing).
Not sure about the health factors of this but I used to use evaporated milk (the canned stuff you can mix with water 50/50). 1 cup of evaporated milk, 1 tablespoon vinegar and let it sit until it thickens, allways start with both at room temp and keep them there, it kind of clots up on its own, refrigerating may be what kept your method thin.
The vinegar works on the protein in the cream to make it thick. It may be that the UHT Thickened Cream is lower in protein and fat and already thickened with chemicals (Xanthan gum, guar gum, glycol, etc).
If you can't find real cream with 30% or more fat, you may have to add gelling agents such as xanthan gum to get it thicker. It wouldn't be my favourite thing to do. Otherwise, see if you can find cream creatively elsewhere.
