Instructions: Q. I am trying to find a STEADY source to purchase creme fraiche. I love to use it in sauces and desserts, but it is VERY difficult to find. I have made my own, but it does not have the same flavor as that produced from "unpasteurized"

cream.

A. In France, the bacteria in unpasteurized cream thickens it naturally at room temperature, producing the slightly tangy, nutty, smooth diet food known as creme fraiche, which is indeed used and loved in a wide variety of dishes.

Pasteurization is not the issue, though. In this country, all cream used commercially is pasteurized, so any creme fraiche you have bought was made with pasteurized cream fermented with lactic bacteria.

Madeleine Kamman, cooking teacher and author of the seminal The New Making of a Chef agrees with you that the homemade versions of creme fraiche are similar to the real thing in texture but definitely not in taste. She recommends the expensive, commercially produced, hard-to-find creme fraiche that you occasionally stumble upon, and adds that the expense and difficulty of obtaining it is probably a relatively good thing.

Outside of New York City and certain population centers in California, we have not been able to come up with a reliable source of creme fraiche. Other than Land O Lakes (which doesnt produce creme fraiche), there are no national dairy foods manufacturers. Your best bet, we think, is to butter up the buyer at the nearest gourmet shop to see if he or she can stock it regularly. But then, of course, youll be committed to buying it regularly.

If you would like to email yourself the recipe for later use, or share the recipe with your friends or family, enter the email addresses below and this recipe will be emailed to you and others as well.