For Christmas a couple of years ago I got Gordon Ramsay Makes it Easy. I wanted to start off really easy. So it looked like I would be making his version of scrambled eggs, which is more of a creamed egg dish and was the easiest recipe in the book.

Except that it called for crème fraîche.

“Bloody hell,” I said in my best North County-cum-Glaswegian accent. “Maybe it’s easy for those who stock crème fraîche for our everyday-bacon-and-eggs needs, but what about the rest of us?” At that point I’d never even seen it in a store. For novice cooks, this can put the brakes on full. And for the record, it can’t be replaced with sour cream, I’ve tried and the results aren’t good.

Crème fraîche, which originated in Normandy, is a heavy cream (35 - 40%) that is matured and thickened like sour cream but not as tangy. In France the cream thickens naturally as a result of bacteria in unpasteurized cream. In Canada and the US where commercial cream is pasteurized, the bacteria can be introduce by adding a little buttermilk or sour cream.

Pronounced “krem fresh”, it can be used in making sauces and soups without separating. It’s good over savouries like smoked salmon, and can be whipped to replace regular whipped cream for desserts and fruit. But it’s not something that can be found at the corner shop, although it can be found readily at a number of specialty shops around the city and is appearing on more menus. Some supermarkets are even catching up as its popularity grows.

A few calls around town and it’s evident that having crème fraîche on hand for some scrambled eggs makes for expensive fry-ups, although there is a way around the price paid at the till.

La Fromagerie (868 College Street) carries a 500g tub of Quality First crème fraîche for $13.25, Pusateri’s (57 Yorkville Avenue) carries the same brand and size for $11.99 as does Whole Foods (87 Avenue Road) for $13.99, which is odd as I thought a large retailer like Whole Foods would be cheaper than the smaller specialty shops.

Alex Farm Products (377 Danforth Avenue) carries a few brands, domestic and European, in various sizes priced from 5.99 and up. Loblaws Queen’s Quay location (10 Lower Jarvis Street) carries Quality First as well but has the best price at $9.99. They also carry a President’s Choice product called double thick cream for $4.99 for 250ml.

So the price can be a little steep and I wanted my scramble-ala-Ramsay without having to go all over God’s green acre to get it. So I made it at home. There are various recipes available online and a lot of cookbooks will have instructions as well. I took mine from Sharon Tyler Herbst’s Food Lover’s Companion.

Take one cup of whipping cream and mix in two tablespoons of buttermilk. Let it sit in a covered glass container at room temp for 8 to 24 hours. I usually let it sit the full 24 or more. It should thicken up nicely. Give it a quick stir before refrigerating. It should keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks.

The homemade stuff comes out around $5.34 cent for 500ml, and only requires about eight-cents worth of buttermilk. It’s pretty close to the bought stuff but a lot cheaper. And those scrambled eggs will never taste the same.

Rod Weatherbie is a Toronto-based journalist. He is also partly responsible for Gadzooks! an online arts zine.