Smetana (dairy product)

Sour cream, sour cream or even Schmetten, is a puncture resistant dairy product made ​​from cream - originally become just sour cream. In some regions is " sour " for sweet coffee cream. The expression is entirely and largely unknown in Austria and South Tyrol in Switzerland; Sour corresponds to the local " sour cream ", or crème fraîche.

Food Law

Sour cream is also offered as sour cream or sour cream with 20-29 % fat, in Russian supermarkets not puncture resistant, but creamy and often with a fat content of 20%, 30% and 42%. The sour cream may be added according to the German Food Law stabilizers and thickening agents.

Production

Sour cream is produced by fermentation of the cream by adding various mesophilic lactic acid bacteria ( Lactococcus lactis, Lactococcus lactis subsp. Cremoris, Ln. Cremoris and Lc. Diacethylactis ) cultures. The bacteria produce while lactic acid, which in turn makes the sour cream and thickened at the same time.

Use

In the kitchen, sour cream is for the enrichment and for thickening soups and sauces and for dessert preparation used ( sour cream cake). Sour cream can also be served as a garnish or simply as an addition to a variety of dishes. Mainly in Thuringia, Hesse and southern Lower Saxony sour cream cake is made ​​from sour cream. It is made of yeast dough and a filling of fruit or cottage cheese, which in turn may be covered by a layer of sour cream, pudding or porridge. The recipes vary from village to village and are often passed down from generation to generation. Sour cream can also be used as a substitute tomato sauce on pizzas, often it is served in combination with salmon.

Etymology and spelling

The word is Schmetten with the Gothic Germanic word smeitan ( underline, lubricate, IE SMEI ) is used and consists in Czech and smetana for " sour cream ", also compare Russian and Polish сметана Śmietana, and the Slavic verb root sъmetati for " squandering " her, which refers to the recovery of the layer of cream from the milk reference.

The term Schmetten also forms the origin of the word butterfly, because this formerly the affection was said to dairy products (see also English butterfly or scenic whey thief ).

The word sour cream / sour cream comes from - if not derived from Schmetten - probably from Middle Low German smand, which - as well as English smooth - West Germanic * smanþi continues for "soft".

In practice, the spelling sour cream has long been used almost exclusively. However, the Duden German spelling it took until the 21st edition (1996 ) on as an alternative to sour cream. After a failed until the publication of the 25th edition in 2009, the variant -d again.