Teresa,

Here's another way to make buttermilk. Take 1 cup of whole or 2% milk and add 1 tbsp of vinegar to it.
Let sit for 15 mins. you have buttermilk.

Linda

Yet one more method... This one is from "Natural Meals in Minutes" by Rita Bingham. I have used this method when I needed 4-5 quarts of buttermilk when I had a marathon St. Patrick's Day baking scheduled, where most of the breads require buttermilk. This cultured buttermilk is MUCH better than using reconstituted buttermilk powder, which tends to be very weak and insipid compared to commercial buttermilk and this homemade version.

Take a quart jar and add 1/2 c. of...
commercial buttermilk OR reconstituted powdered buttermilk OR leftover buttermilk from making the homemade recipe - your choice.

Fill the remainder of the jar with commercial milk OR reconstituted powdered milk (commercial milk works very well, but powdered milk will work too)

Mix. Place a lid on the jar (I use a plastic screw-top lid designed to be used on canning jars) and set in a warm place (at 80°F) until clabbered - about 12-18 hours.

[Grainlady note: I set the mixture in my oven with the light on. You may want to take the temperature of your oven after it's warmed up. As far away from the light as possible in my oven is 80°-85°F.]

When clabbered, stir until smooth. Refrigerate.

You can make subsequent batches with this home-cultured buttermilk. Make sure the buttermilk is no older than 2-weeks old. Old buttermilk doesn't work well as a starter culture.

Also from the book:

BUTTERMILK SOUR CREAM
2 c. light cream
2 T. buttermilk

Shake or blend a few seconds. Cover the jar and let stand at 80° for 24-hours. Refrigerate to set. Use in any recipe calling for sour cream.

-Grainlady

I just use powdered buttermilk. Best part is the recipe for pancakes is on the jar.

I can't remember where I heard it, but I know I was told by someone that buttermilk is the liquid that's leftover after you make actual butter - is this wrong? I'm confused now. From what you guys are describing, it sounds like it should be pretty thick and also, does it make any difference in baking whether it's "cultured" or not or is it just a matter of taste? If I made a recipe that called for cultured and I used plain, would it not work? Maybe the person was trying to explain plain buttermilk to me and not "cultured" buttermilk?

Can you tell I don't bake much and I've never used buttermilk lol?! I really want to do more baking so I'm taking in all this info I'm getting from the various baking threads here. Great stuff!

Lisa

I am now milking my own cow! Just bought her back in October.
I started with cultured buttermilk from the store. Add l cup cultured buttermilk to a quart jar and fill with milk (can be store, of course). Let sit at room temperature until nice and thick. You can also use 1 cup plain cultured yogurt (dannon plain is best) or, this last time I used maybe 1/2 cup cultured sour cream.

I ran out of my own culture so had to start over.

I love to use buttermilk in cornbread, biscuits, scones, and yeast breads/rolls

Do you just substitute buttermilk for regular milk?

Buttermilk was originally the leavings from butter....it was slightly sour-ish because cream was often saved for several days to make butter out of.
The demand for buttermilk exceeded the supply so "they" started making cultured buttermilk by adding a bacterial culture, similar but different from the culture used to set milk for cheese ( when rennet isn't used).
No you can't make buttermilk from milk and vinegar.....what you get is just sour milk.
I often sub buttermilk for skim milk in a corn bread, pancake or biscuit recipe.....even in a yeast bread now and then.
I usually buy buttermilk....I can buy it by the 1/2 pint....cost $.35
Linda C

I use buttermilk as a starter to make cottage cheese, so I don't understand how you can add it to milk to make more buttermilk. 1/4 c. buttermilk to two quarts of milk clabbers (sets solid) and then when heated, separates into curds and whey and strained through cheesecloth becomes cottage cheese.

So how does buttermilk make more buttermilk?

The buttermilk culture when left to grow at room temp grows and multiplies in the addition of the cup of plain milk to increase the amount of buttermilk? It does thicken and sours the cup of plain milk when the two are combined. Maybe if you heated it you would get curds and whey also?

laceyvail -

In the method I posted above, the buttermilk added to milk, cultures the milk to make a nice thick and tangy "buttermilk". The difference between the homemade buttermilk and your cottage cheese is the heat used to make them.

The culture/starter (the buttermilk) starts the souring process. Lactose is converted to lactic acid. There are enough active milk-souring bacteria which prevent the development of "bad" bacteria - those bacteria that cause milk to putrify. By culturing milk with buttermilk, you end up with the flavor of buttermilk, as well as acidity.

The homemade buttermilk is only incubated at a low temperature (80°F in the recipe I follow) while making the same ingredients into cottage cheese it requires heat which causes the curds to separate from the whey.

Here's another soured milk product from "Natural Meals in Minutes":

BUTTERMILK CHEESE

1 qt. homemade buttermilk (see recipe above in previous post)
1-1/2 c. dry milk powder (NON-instant)
[Grainlady note: if you do use Instant Non-fat dry milk, pulvarize the powder in a blender until it's a fine powder, THEN measure 1-1/2 c.]

Blend buttermilk and powder together and pour into a hot, heavy sauce pan coated with a lecithin spray (PAM). Cook and stir over medium heat until milk begins to curdle. Let rest 5 minutes. If liquid is clear, pour curds into colander and drain off whey. If liquid is still milky, continue heating until liquid turns clear. Rinse in very warm, then cool water, salt and refrigerate. Note: Plain buttermilk without the added milk powder makes TINY curds and very small yield. Makes 1-1/2 cups.

-Grainlady