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Сметана really is sour cream. I am not aware of the products that are sold under the name of sour cream and are not сметана, or of the products that are sold under the name of сметана and are very different. However, milk fat content in сметана can vary and depending on that the product can be more or less thick.

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Smetana is definitely translated as "sour cream", it's just the production methods that differ. As a result, we get two absolutely different dairy products;-)

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Russian dairy products differ from those in North America. Ryazhenka and kefir (drinkable stuff) just made it to several food chains in the States (I've met them at Food Emporium,) bur smetana and tvorog seemingly did not. It looks like you take tvorog for smetana, and vice versa. They are different things: smetana is semi-liquid, tvorog is more substantial, even almost hard, more like cottage cheese. Then there's творожная масса (which is based on tvorog, but a different thing anyway) and many other dairy issues not known in North America.

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bur smetana and tvorog seemingly did not
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I see them in supermarket every day, both under English names (sour cream and cottage cheese respectively) and Russian or Slavic (e.g. "Polski Twarog").

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So, how would сметана look that is absoultely different from another сметана?

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It's not the look that differs - it's the taste and the constitution...

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Cottage cheese is not exactly tvorog, wich is much more dry.

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There are different kinds of cottage cheese, and some of them are very close to tvorog we are used to.

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Oh well... As you wish. Those I've found here (Israel) are quite far from being the "tvorog we are used to." Apparently, in States the situation is different.

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You have forgotten their taste, then. Smetana and sour cream are two different dairy products, and so are tvorog and cottage cheese. Smetana has no direct counterpart in Western cuisine, it is an Easter-European speciality. It is heavier and sweeter than sour cream. They have smetana in Estonia (hapukoor) and even in Germany (Schmend), as well as in most Slavic countries (it is pavlaka in Montenegro and Serbia, kwaśna śmietana in Poland, while in Croatia it is vrhnje.) Croatian vrhnje is consumed in a mix with sir, which is kind of cottage cheese.
Now to tvorog. Polski twaróg is not the thnig we call tvorog in Russia: it basically is qark, or kvarg, that is called also Topfen in Austria, or "Bulgarian cheese" in Israel, and is really closer to young soft cheese than to Russian tvorog, which is drier and far more grainy. The only kind of kvarg which is close to the real Russian tvorog is Lithuanian. I have tasted most of them (except the Israely variety,) so I can witness that Polish twaróg is different from Russian tvorog :)

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Well, if you are ever in Canada, I'll give you the local brands of sour cream and cottage cheese to try. Before that this discussion is more or less groundless.

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All right. I can add that I have tried most versions of what is called tvorog in Russian food stores in Seattle, New York, and San Francisco. They all were different, but equally far from real Russian tvorog - much closer to polski twaróg, in the best case.

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markushka.livejournal.com

Don't know what in America is being referred to as "sour cream"... Can you please describe which dairy products named "sour cream" did you see? With vegetable oil / gelatin? Disgusting...

Wiki gives a good article for Smetana and Sour Cream
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smetana_%28cream%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sour_cream

Nothing to add. The only difference: russian Smetana should not contain thickener. "Sour cream often contains additional ingredients such as gelatin, rennin and vegetable enzymes". Real Smetana does not! It's not Smetana, it's fake if gelatin added! Smetana should be made from milk with addition of acid bacteria only. Light / nonfat sour creams are not smetanas.

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shaggy.livejournal.com

I living in Scotland. I fond, that Creme fraiche is more similar to Smetana, then sour cream. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cr%C3%A8me_fra%C3%AEche
Pardon my English.

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shaggy.livejournal.com

Crème fraîche (IPA: [kʁɛm fʁɛʃ], French for "fresh cream") is a heavy cream slightly soured with bacterial culture, but not as sour or as thick as sour cream. Originally a French product, today it is available throughout Europe and the rest of the world. Crème fraîche can be made at home by adding a small amount of cultured buttermilk or sour cream to normal heavy cream, and allowing to stand for several hours at room temperature until the bacterial cultures act on the cream.

In general, crème fraîche, like sour cream, is used in food preparation, but crème fraîche has at least one advantage over sour cream: it can be mixed with air into whipped cream. Also, unlike sour cream, crème fraîche has a high enough fat content (and low enough protein content) that it can be directly cooked without curdling.

Smetana cream, a similar cream used in Central and Eastern European cuisines.

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kegarawashii.livejournal.com

sour cream is a conventional translation for сметана, though the products really are different.

my teacher /he's American/ once noted that there were three products in Russia which he and his family would really miss when they're back home: smetana, ice-cream and bread. the formula stayed the same for the next teacher - a Canadian one.))

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upthera44.livejournal.com

+1

In my experience Russian smetana is quite different from American commercial sour cream. It has a different taste and consistency. Like wolk_off said, I think it was sweeter for sure. I wouldn't want to put American sour cream on blinii really, it wouldn't be the same. Also, my host family prepared tvorog with fruit for me every morning in Novgorod. This was my absolute favorite food that I encountered in Russia and I really hoped to find it here. But when I bought some tvorog at a Russian grocery, it was quite different. The "real" tvorog I encountered was much drier and more crumbling and sweeter, and really had almost nothing in common whatsoever with cottage cheese.

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I must say, regardless of what wolk_off thinks, that two absolutely genuine samples of Russian творог may taste absolutely different. One may taste more sour and dry, another may taste sweeter and more wet. That all depends on too many circumstances. There is a ГОСТ for творог, but it doesn't make real Russian творог home-made in different villages taste identical.

You may have liked some specific brand of factory-made творог that you host family prefers. However, without knowing the brand, you'll probably be disappointed even if buying another Russian творог in a Russian store in Russia.

to wolk_off: do you remember the old-time Soviet творог in "кишка" ? Was it dry and grainy? ;-) Still it was a творог.

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upthera44.livejournal.com

fair enough

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The old-time Soviet tvorog in a bowel is not with us anymore, I daresay, as is the old-time Soviet substance known under the name of "coffee with milk" (do you remember that strong, unforgettable smell of burnt cloth?). Neither are with us that hellish mixture of unfiltered technical alcohol, saccharine, grape essence and some deadly chemical called flavor stabilizer, known in the dear old Soviet times as "Porto wine" (more specifically, "Портвейн 777",) and that dear old sweet frozen substance made from water, powdered milk, fruit leftovers turned into a "syrup" and, again, saccharine, known in the dear old unforgettable Soviet times as "мороженое фруктовое за семь копеек" (seven-copeck-a-portion fruit ice cream.) And you know what? I do not mourn any of them, including that semi-liquid thing in a plastic bowel that some weirdos pronounced tvorog :)

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Well, you're wrong about most things that you consider to be gone.
At least the "semi-liquid thing in a plastic bowel" is still with us. I can't remember the brand, but it's available from my local store in Belyaevo, Moscow, Russia. :) And you know what? It's still called "творог".

Портвейн 777 (also known as "3 топора") must really be gone, but "мороженное фруктовое за сем копеек" is still with us, although it's not "за семь копеек" anymore and isn't in a paper cup. There are very similar samples of ice cream existing now.

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Well, it's then all gone from my level of consumption, I guess, as well as Zhigulyovskoe beer and Buratino lemonade :) If some paste from processed milk, powdered eggshells and fructose is still called tvorog by some shameless producer of cheap unhealthy food, it still cannot mean that this disgusting stuff IS tvorog, exactly the way that calling some poisonous artificial booze "Porto wine" still does not make this disgusting stuff Porto wine.

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What I'm trying to tell you is that "the tvorog" is not necessarily dry, grainy and sour. It depends on many factors. Personally, I hate dry grainy sour tvorog and like sweeter variants. They, for example, may be produced from the dry version by adding some milk. I prefer, though, to buy tvorog that isn't dry originally.

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I know. It simply isn't tvorog per se, it's творожная масса. Like Croatian "vrhnje s sirom" (barely distinguishable from smetana mixed with tvorog.)

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Ok, I see I can't persuade you in that other variants of tvorog are indeed tvorog and nothing else.
Let me keep my opinion and you keep yours if you want. I think we're not going to start a holy war around tvorog flavours, are we?

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