Out of sour cream
Out of sour cream? Yogurt, blended cottage cheese, or milk and butter
Updated
Colorado State and Mississippi State both list several ways to stand in for a cup of sour cream. Two of them come out the same in both charts: plain yogurt, measure for measure, and cottage cheese blended smooth with a little buttermilk and lemon juice.
The third mix is milk, lemon juice and butter. Both charts use those three things but not in the same amounts, so both versions are shown side by side.
Replaces 1 cup sour cream
Plain yogurt
| Amount | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 1 cup | plain yogurt |
- Colorado State University Extension, Ingredient Substitutions (web page) — verified 2026-09-27
- Mississippi State University Extension, Ingredient Substitutions and Equivalents (Publication 1690, 2024), p. 7 — verified 2026-09-27
✓ 2 sources match Colorado State Extension, Mississippi State Extension list the same amounts.
Replaces 1 cup sour cream
Buttermilk + lemon juice + cottage cheese, blended smooth
| Amount | Ingredient | ≈ grams |
|---|---|---|
| ⅓ cup | buttermilk | 82 g |
| 1 tbsp | lemon juice | 15 g |
| 1 cup | cottage cheese, blended smooth |
- Colorado State University Extension, Ingredient Substitutions (web page) — verified 2026-09-27
- Mississippi State University Extension, Ingredient Substitutions and Equivalents (Publication 1690, 2024), p. 7 — verified 2026-09-27
✓ 2 sources match Colorado State Extension, Mississippi State Extension list the same amounts.
Grams are volume-to-weight estimates from USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy): Milk, buttermilk, fluid, cultured, lowfat — 1 cup = 245 g; Lemon juice, raw — 1 cup = 244 g. Blank means the chart does not say which kind to use, or the unit is not a volume.
Sources disagree · replaces 1 cup sour cream
Milk + lemon juice + butter
The charts below do not print the same thing for 1 cup of sour cream. We show each one as printed instead of averaging them.
Colorado State Extension — more milk, less butter
| Amount | Ingredient | ≈ grams |
|---|---|---|
| ⅞ cup | milk | 214 g |
| 1 tbsp | lemon juice | 15 g |
| 2 tbsp | butter or margarine |
- Colorado State University Extension, Ingredient Substitutions (web page) — verified 2026-09-27
Mississippi State Extension — less milk, more butter
| Amount | Ingredient | ≈ grams |
|---|---|---|
| ¾ cup | milk | 183 g |
| ¾ tsp | lemon juice | 3.8 g |
| ⅓ cup | butter or margarine |
- Mississippi State University Extension, Ingredient Substitutions and Equivalents (Publication 1690, 2024), p. 7 — verified 2026-09-27
Grams are volume-to-weight estimates from USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy): Milk, whole, 3.25% milkfat, with added vitamin D — 1 cup = 244 g; Lemon juice, raw — 1 cup = 244 g. Blank means the chart does not say which kind to use, or the unit is not a volume.
Before you swap
- Mississippi State says to blend the cottage cheese mix until smooth, and Colorado State says to blend it together. Neither chart gives a time.
- Colorado State also lists sour cream swaps made from dry milk or evaporated milk with vinegar. Mississippi State does not print those, so they are not on this page yet.
- Both charts also have a buttermilk version, but only Mississippi State adds butter to it. That one is not on this page.
- Illinois uses sour cream as an ingredient in its own swaps but has no line for replacing it.
- Plain cottage cheese is not what either chart prints. Colorado State and Mississippi State both build the swap with buttermilk and lemon juice and have you blend the lot, so the cottage cheese card is a small recipe, not a straight one-for-one swap like the yogurt line.
- On cottage cheese versus sour cream, the charts do not rank one above the other. In the yogurt row, Colorado State and Mississippi State list cottage cheese blended until smooth and sour cream as two separate options, and all three charts list both among their mayonnaise swaps.
- The Colorado State and Mississippi State mayonnaise lines carry limits. Colorado State says to use the swap “for all or part of mayonnaise called for in recipe”, and Mississippi State marks its line “for use in salads and salad dressings”. They are not on this page.
How these ratios are checked: our method. Spotted a mismatch with a chart? Tell us and we will recheck the original.