Creme Fraiche substitutes

1 cup heavy cream + 2 tbsp buttermilk; cover and leave at room temperature 12 to 24 hours until thickened, then chill

Keeps the fat, acid, texture and liquid roles.

Exactly how creme fraiche is made, and worth planning for. It needs a warm kitchen and a day, so it is no use if you are cooking tonight.

1:1

Keeps the fat, acid, texture and liquid roles.

Tangier and lower in fat, and it will split if the sauce boils, which creme fraiche does not. Stir it in off the heat.

1 cup mascarpone whisked with 1 tbsp lemon juice

Keeps the fat, acid, texture and liquid roles.

Matches the richness and the heat stability, but you are adding the acidity yourself so it never tastes properly cultured.

3/4 cup full-fat Greek yogurt whisked with 1/4 cup heavy cream

Keeps the fat, acid, texture and liquid roles.

The extra cream lifts the fat enough to make splitting much less likely than yogurt alone, but it is still tangier and can curdle at a hard boil.

6 oz cream cheese beaten with 1/4 cup heavy cream

Keeps the fat, acid and texture roles; loses liquid.

Thick and stable but far denser and not pourable, with a blander, more manufactured tang.

1 cup heavy cream + 1 tbsp lemon juice, stirred and left 10 minutes

Keeps the fat, acid, texture and liquid roles.

A quick approximation that thickens slightly and picks up acidity, but it never develops the cultured flavour and it stays much looser.

1:1

Keeps the acid, texture and liquid roles; loses fat.

Much tangier and considerably leaner, and it will curdle if simmered. Fine spooned cold onto soup or a baked potato, risky in a hot pan sauce.