Monday, February 23, 2009

Homemade Buttermilk

Did you know that you can culture your own buttermilk? By adding a small amount of store bought buttermilk to sweet milk, you can stretch that expensive store bought jug to several more quarts of buttermilk perfect for baking!

Bring 1/2 cup fresh buttermilk to room temperature. Add 3 cups of water and 1 cup powdered milk. Mix well, pour into a jar, and cover loosely. Let the milk sit on the counter for 24 hours. Then refrigerate.

Buttermilk! It's as easy as that.

6 comments:

Lydia said...

I have tried this twice and both times it came out smelling perfectly but it was stringy! You practically had to bite into a big clump of it. Pretty nasty. Have you ever had that problem?

Unknown said...

Lydia, I have never had buttermilk come out stringy. I whisk the ingredients together really well before letting it sit. Maybe yours wasn't mixed well enough? ~Emily

Erin said...

Interesting idea, wanted to let you know I tried you sourdough english muffins and they were very good. I've made bread before but never english muffins. I'll be making them again sometime.
Thanks for posting the recipe.
Erin

It's me said...

I thought this looked interesting, but my concern was with the words "real buttermilk". I have been under the impression that the normal store-bought stuff is some concoction that bears little resemblance to real buttermilk. Only because one my mother drank some and nearly gagged, and she grew up drinking buttermilk.

So are you talking "buttermilk that you get from, say, a Farmer's Market" kinda buttermilk or that artificially thick supermarket stuff?

Just to be sure before I start. :) Thanks.

Unknown said...

Buttermilk in this recipe means the cultured buttermilk that you buy from the store. It is similar to plain yogurt. I'm guessing what your mother drank was probably a by product of making homemade butter. Cultured buttermilk and the leftovers from making butter are both "real buttermilk", but they are very different. The culture in this type of buttermilk makes biscuits, pancakes and other baked goods very light.

It's me said...

Good to know. I just bought a half gallon of buttermilk and I'm going to give it a shot.

Thanks!