Smetana (dairy product)

For the composer, see Bedřich Smetana.

A bowl of borscht soup with smetana

Blini with smetana and red caviar

Plates of vareniki with smetana and onion

Home-made oladji with sour cream, roe and chopped onion, and Russian pickled cucumber with honey

Smetana is a range of sour creams from Central and Eastern Europe. It is a dairy product produced by souring heavy cream. It is similar to crème fraîche (28% fat), but nowadays mainly sold with 10% to 30% milkfat content depending on the country. Its cooking properties are different from crème fraîche and the lighter sour creams sold in the US, which contain 12 to 16% butterfat. It is widley used in cooking and baking.

Uses

Smetana is widely used in many Central and Eastern European cuisines: in appetizers, main courses, soups and desserts. For example, it may be blended with soups, vegetable and meat dishes, or cole slaw; served with pelmeni, dumplings, or pierogi; or used as a filling in savoury pancakes. Smetana can be blended to a Liptauer-like cheese spread with cottage cheeses, onions, paprika and other spices, eaten with bread. It is often used in cooking, as it is high enough in fat not to curdle at higher temperatures. It is used in the preparation of meat or vegetable stews and casseroles, or other dishes that require a long cooking time in the oven. Smetana does not melt in the oven and it does not soak the whole dish like crème fraîche. Hungarian cooks use it as an ingredient in sauces such as paprikas and in recipes such as ham-filled crepes (palacsinta). The current trend to reduce fat content of the milk products has caused the taste and consistency of many milk products to deteriorate. To imitate Hungarian-style cooking and the use of smetana (called tejföl in Hungarian), Hungarian cookbooks recommend using Western sour cream mixed with heavy whipping cream (38–40% milkfat). Homogenization breaks the fat into smaller sizes. Smetana is not homogenized.

In Central European countries, such as Czech Republic, the word Smetana (Cream) is used as follows:

Smetana is a dairy product, it is the fattest part of the milk, which is deposited on its surface. Smetana is produced by skimming or other ways and the shops sell it either as sweet or sour (in a number of languages Russian term originally used smetana just for sour cream). Containing at least 10% fat. Smetana, which has at least 30% fat, is called Smetana ke šlehání (whipping cream) and is used for the production of Šlehačka (whipped cream). Is a subset of high-fat cream with at least 35% fat. So in modern language understanding the word Smetana means different kinds of dairy products, does not translate as sour cream, which in Czech would be called kysana smetana or zakysana smetana.

In Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish, and Russian cuisines, sour cream is often added to borscht and other soups, and is used as a condiment for dumplings, such as vareniki, pierogi, and pelmeni. It used in gravies served with Bohemian (Czech) cuisine, such as the marinated beef Svíčková, somewhat similar to German Sauerbraten except for the added sour cream.

Schmand is typical for some German local cuisines, especially Hesse and Thuringia. Of note, it is not only used in savory dishes, but also for cakes called Schmandkuchen and desserts.

When comparing brands or suppliers of smetana, the Polish and Russian practice is to compare the fat content of the varieties. Fat content can range from 10% (runny) to 70% (thick). The most common supermarket smetanas are 10 to 40% fat (milk fat only for an authentic product). Addition of thickeners such as gelatine is not forbidden by relevant regulations, but is regarded as cheating and the product is considered substandard and unsuitable for culinary use,^{[citation needed]} since some recipes are easily spoiled by the presence of a thickener.

See also

• Category:Russian loanwords
• Kajmak
• List of salads
• Strained yogurt
• Sour cream