What makes buttermilk

Do you just add regular milk and hope nobody notices the buttermilk pancakes are sans buttermilk? What is buttermilk anyway and is it really that important?

With hungry kids and plans for a nice weekend family breakfast about to be deflated, here are a few easy, quicky solutions to this common cooking dilemma. So, what does buttermilk actually do? The main reason a recipe will call for buttermilk—apart from the tart flavor and creamy thickness that the buttermilk provides—is the acid.

The acid in buttermilk is a byproduct of the fermentation process and it will activate baking soda or baking powder , causing your bread, muffins, or pancakes to rise. So, to answer your question, yes, buttermilk truly is that important. Not to fear, though. If you don't have any buttermilk on hand and you're in a bind, there are four different ways to make your own buttermilk at home and salvage your recipe and your cooking reputation.

The best method for you will depend on what you need it for, and how soon you need it. Using the first two methods described below, you can make your own buttermilk substitute in 10 minutes or less, which is perfect for those life moments when you're in the midst of making the recipe and realize that you don't have any buttermilk in your fridge. The second two methods will take longer, but they will save you an unneeded trip to the grocery store and some money.

So let's take a look at what the four methods to making your own homemade buttermilk are. This first method is a really easy method. Just add one tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to one cup of milk and let it sit out at room temperature for about 10 minutes.

If you need more than a cup, just keep the ratios the same. For two cups, use two cups of milk and two tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar and so on. As we noted, this method will not give you a true cultured buttermilk, but rather, acidified buttermilk. This means you can use it in a recipe for biscuits or pancakes or the like, and the acid will activate the baking powder or baking soda just as it should. This will make a cup of "buttermilk," although just like the first method, it's not a true buttermilk, but it will be an adequate substitute in whatever recipe calls for buttermilk.

If you aren't in a big hurry or if you're just interested in the process, here's how you can make your own cultured buttermilk from scratch. Unlike the two methods described above, which simply involve adding an acid to milk and letting it curdle, the methods described below will give you true, cultured buttermilk.

Just take note that If you want to make a true cultured buttermilk, which is what you buy at the store, it will take about 24 hours and you will need to start with either an active buttermilk culture or a cup of actual cultured buttermilk. This is great for if you ever have a little bit of leftover buttermilk from a previous recipe that you don't need and you don't want to pour it down the sink.

Home Maintenance. Country Living Shop. Shopping Guides. United States. Type keyword s to search. Today's Top Stories. Makeover Takeover: Colonial Comeback. Treat Your Family to Homemade Cupcakes. So what is buttermilk? Can I make buttermilk? What does buttermilk taste like? More Ways to Use Buttermilk. Cultured Buttermilk for Cooking and Baking, Powdered. Jamie Grill Getty Images. Dorling Kindersley Getty Images. Put Your Buttermilk to Good Use.

Lemon Buttermilk Tart. Buttermilk Cupcakes. Buttermilk and Hatch Chile Grits. Credit goes to those amazing emulsifiers. If you've never baked with the real stuff, you have no concept of how much more tender your cakes, biscuits, and muffins can be. They will taste incredibly moist and rich, even though buttermilk is low in fat.

Let's just say it's magical stuff. Use it interchangeably with commercial buttermilk the cultured skim milk kind in recipes. Buttermilk bars were set up by the Salvation Army during Prohibition as a refreshing alternative to alcoholic drinks. Even The Federal Government agrees that cultured skim milk isn't buttermilk , but it's not a big enough problem to force dairy companies to change their labels. Photo: Shutterstock; courtesy of Kate's Butter.

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