On Buttermilk

The first time I tasted buttermilk, I felt cheated.  It tasted neither like milk, nor like butter, and was really just sour and pretty gross.

These days, I like to use it a lot in cooking and baking.  It adds moisture and tanginess to whatever you're making.  I still hate to buy it though, because if I have any leftover from a recipe, chances are that I end up throwing the rest away because I don't use it every day for cooking.

Recently, I was making a recipe that called for buttermilk but had forgotten to buy it at the store.  I was really dreading to have to brave 5pm Charlottesville traffic JUST to buy 6 measly ounces of buttermilk, so I did some research.

I may never buy buttermilk again!  Well, I probably will because this doesn't exactly taste like the real thing...but it's close enough in a pinch.

Buttermilk

:: 1 cup milk
:: 1 tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice

Mix the two ingredients together and let the milk sit for 5 minutes.  Now it's ready to use.  You can obviously make less or more and just maintain the rough ratio of the two liquids.

To get the right texture, some milk fat is preferred, but I've definitely used skim milk before.  I would really stick to lemon juice or white vinegar for this application - you don't want your pancakes tasting like red wine vinegar, or your buttermilk biscuits to taste like apple cider vinegar, probably!