Countless recipes from the most delectable quick breads and impossibly flaky biscuits to fluffy pancakes and tangy salad dressings call for one magic ingredient: buttermilk. Buttermilk can help dough or batter rise tenderize proteins and impart a tangy sour flavor and aroma that only milk lacks. Those varieties with live active cultures are also packed with probiotics which can help improve your gut microbiome boost your immune response improve digestion and maximize vitamin and mineral absorption among other purported health benefits.
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 In The Kitchen With Matt | 2022-11-14 18:54:13 |  50,340 Views |
How to Make Buttermilk at Home with 2 Ingredients
That said buttermilk is one of those ingredients that people rarely have on hand. While substitutes exist they are often less effective at mimicking the characteristics of the real thing. Fear not though because all is not lost. The next time you find yourself in a bind without buttermilk for a recipe save yourself a trip to the grocery store and follow these simple instructions for making buttermilk at home using two everyday ingredients you probably already have in your fridge.
Before we get into how to make buttermilk at home it helps to understand what it is and where it comes from. Buttermilk was traditionally a byproduct of the buttermaking process. After cream was churned into butter it was allowed to sit. The resulting sour liquid was infused with cultures that would extend its shelf life compared to regular raw milk. Today buttermilk is made by taking pasteurized milk and infusing it with lactic acid bacteria causing it to ferment much like kefir or yogurt. Commercially produced buttermilk comes in packages ranging in fat content to skim with a denser texture than the classic variety.
Buttermilk’s superpower is its acidity. This can activate leavening agents and denature gluten proteins in baked goods transforming them into something much more lush and airy. When used in savory recipes like dressings or marinades it can also help add complexity to a dish by balancing sweet salty spicy bitter and umami-rich flavors. While yogurt and sour cream can be substituted their texture fat content and acidity can vary making them more or less effective as a buttermilk facsimile. A better bet is to make your own which is easy and incredibly effective in any recipe.
