I used to never have buttermilk in the house, but now I make sure that I do. I make pancakes, muffins, cakes, etc., with it. Just do some baking and freeze.

I use it in making pancakes and waffles. You can also use it in place of milk when soaking fish fillets before dipping them in flour. It's also good in biscuits. I pretty much only use the powdered buttermilk, but then I don't use it in salad dressings - I have other substitutes for that. BTW, my recipes call for powdered buttermilk, and so they might not be helpful.

Lars

How about Buttermilk biscuits?

Or onion rings? Soak the onion slices in the buttermilk and then dip them season flour and deep fry.

Or southern fried chicken using boneless chicken breasts. Just soak the chicken in buttermilk, dip in seasoned flour and just before frying, dip in the flour again.

Well I'm too lazy to post pictures, but my carrot cake uses a cup and those southern rolls so often mentioned here take another cup.....and a glass of butter milk is a really nice treat now and then...ice cold with a soda cracker.
And it freezes quite will.
Linda C

Linda, drink it! If it is too tart for you, add some sugar or make a fruit smoothie with it. Yum!

Cold buttermilk on a hot summer day.....I know, wrong season now....soon, I hope.

Oh, ann t, your recipes all sound so fabulous! And your talent for photography is something to envy! I willingly bow, in most cases, to your superior culinary knowledge. But your suggestion that you can use something "boneless" to make Southern fried chicken is -- how can I put this? -- downright blasphemous! Bone in and skin on, honey chile, or it's a Yankee wannabe.

sm :)

LOL, sm, this is gonna be another one of those biscuit/grits/cornbread arguments, isn't it?

I agree, though, it makes great fried chicken when you soak the chicken in buttermilk first. Nothing like it for biscuits and pancakes either.

Yes, I think it's time for Linda to do some baking. We'll all stop by for breakfast!

Annie

You are all welcome to come to breakfast anytime!

SM, I am laughing out loud! You south'ners really take your food seriously! LOL
I love all these great suggestions! Well....almost all.

Drink it? What, are you cracked??? Not into gagging....can't drink regular milk, either.

I don't fry much, but those onion rings sure do look good!
I'll probably make some biscuits. Not a big pancake/waffle person, part of the reason I have buttermilk leftover!

Linda WHAT carrot cake recipe? And WHAT southern rolls? Cough up the recipes, girlfriend! LOL

Thanks for the laughs and the ideas!

Linda

Don't forget.... many chocolate cakes recipes call for buttermilk. Buttermilk Pie is wonderful...I think someone from here posted a Pecan Buttermilk Pie recipe. Many quick breads use buttermilk. I try to keep buttermilk on hand and it lasts way beyond the sell by date...if it's not furry or walking on it's own it's fine.

Nancy

This carrot cake
Carrot cake Julie TÂs
3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tsps cinnamon
1 8 oz can crushed pineapple, drained
2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup raisins chopped with 1 Tablespoon of flour
Buttermilk glaze
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup butter
1 Tblsp light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup softened butter
4 oz softened cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp orange juice
1 tsp grated orange rind
Preheat oven to 350
With a mixer Beat eggs, add oil and buttermilk, sugar and vanilla. beat to combine. Stir together flour, salt, cinnamon and baking powder and stir into batter. stir in pineapple, carrots and raisins.
Pour into a greased 8 by 13 pan or 2 greased round 9 inch cake pans. Bake 35 to 45 minutes until set in the middle. Remove from the oven and immediatly spread with the buttermilk glaze. Cool completely and frost with the cream cheese frosting.
Buttermilk glaze:
In a medium sauce pan ( don't use a small pan) combine all ingredients but vanilla. Bring to a boil and cook 3 minutes stirring often...it will bubble a lot. It should be a light caramel color, stir in vanilla and pour over the cake
Cream cheese frosting:
Beat cream cheese and butter until light add vanilla powd. sugar and juice and rind...beat until smooth and frost the cooled cake

And these rolls.
I like to make them in the mornings for a breakfast roll too.
I usually double the recipe using only 1/3 cup sugar in the doubled recipe.
If you keep the dough for a week, punch it down every day or so.
They are a great roll.
Buttermilk Refrigerator Rolls
1 Package dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup melted butter
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
2 cups buttermilk
Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large mixing bowl. Let sit 5 minutes. Stir in butter
Combine dry ingredients; add to yeast mixture along with buttermilk.
Stir well. Turn dough out on a floured surface, knead gently a few times and shape into a ball. Place in greased bowl, cover, and refrigerate until needed. Keeps for one week.
Break off a soft ball sized lump of dough and roll into a circle about 1/4" thick. Cut into pie shaped wedges and roll up from the wider edge into crescent shapes. You do not have to let them rise again.
Bake on greased baking sheet at 400 for 8-10 minutes.

I buy buttermilk especially for drinking and sometimes will sacrifice a bit some for fried chicken, or making biscuits or a buttermilk pie. Didn't know one could get it in a powdered form....I will have to look for it.

Dan

An FYI moment.... For those of you who keep powdered buttermilk on hand for baking, but only occasionally need commercial liquid buttermilk for taste/texture in certain recipes that you can't achieve with reconstituted buttermilk powder, you can make your own homemade buttermilk using reconstituted powdered butter milk and regular milk. It makes that tangy, thick, liquid you are looking for - rather than that insipid reconstituted powdered buttermilk.

Information from: Natural Meals in Minutes - by Rita Bingham.

To one quart of milk, add 1/2 c. reconstituted buttermilk liquid (or you can use 1/2 c. commercial buttermilk).

Let stand in a warm place (at least 80°F) - I place mine in the oven with the light on ONLY (no preheating), as far from the light as possible - until clabbered, about 12-18 hours. Stir until smooth. Refrigerate.

You can use some of the new homemade buttermilk to culture the next batch (use it as a culture within 2 weeks - old buttermilk won't culture as well as new). This recipe can also be made using reconstituted powdered milk, but I like commercial milk better.

-Grainlady

Grainlady, THANKS! Whodatthunk?

That pretty much solves this problem for future!

Linda, thanks to you too, those recipes will be tested very soon!

Linda

I second the biscuits, especially Ann's recipe, they are the best!

Might I recommend Bumblebeez's buttermilk refrigerator rolls? They are out of this world good, not to mention super convenient, as you can keep the dough in the fridge and just bake up a few rolls as needed -- here's a link to the recipe and discussion on the recipe exchange!

Here is a link that might be useful: Buttermilk Refrigerator Rolls

I always have buttermilk in my fridge, and use it for all of the above, including my Dirt Bombs, baby.

Sol

It makes great mashed potatoes, too.

Em....Bumble's buttermilk rolls is the recipe I posted...
Didn't remember who originally put it up, but they are yummy and use butter milk.
Linda C

Any chocolate cake recipe as stated above would be great. Or used as part of a batter for fish or chicken etc. My dad was in Pkramer's camp. He loved an ice cold glass of buttermilk with a dash of salt and black pepper added. It really was good! Gina

A question for you all. I ended up with a half gallon of buttermilk (I needed it to make a cake and that was the only size I could get my hands on) and I'm wondering if I can freeze it or something. I should have done something else, but I was in "go mode" and just bought it, only thinking about getting the cake done for a friend's birthday. I don't usually keep buttermilk around and I don't make biscuits or pancakes much so I'm seriously wondering about my ability to use it before it goes bad! Any tips on freezing or preserving it somehow?

TIA,
Bri

I've made this recipe several times, the longer you soak the chicken the more tang. Be careful with the breading it can peel off if your oil is not hot enough.

Fried Chicken Paillard

1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
4 skinless and boneless chicken-breast halves
8 slices white bread, crusts removed
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup vegetable shortening or vegetable oil

1. Combine buttermilk, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Place a chicken breast half between two squares of plastic wrap. Using a meat pounder or the bottom of a saucepan, pound chicken until just more than 1/4 inch thick. Repeat with remaining breasts; place in buttermilk marinade. Chill overnight, not more than 24 hours.
2. Place bread, remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon black pepper, and cayenne pepper in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until fine crumbs form, about 10 seconds. Transfer mixture to a shallow bowl. (Sometimes I just use panko crumbs)
3. Remove a chicken-breast half from buttermilk mixture, and shake off excess liquid. Dredge both sides of chicken in bread crumbs, and transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining chicken breasts.
4. Line a baking sheet with paper towels. Heat shortening in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, carefully place two chicken-breast halves in pan. Fry until bottoms are golden, about 2 minutes. Turn chicken breasts over, and cook until golden and cooked through, about 2 minutes more. Transfer to prepared pan. Repeat with remaining chicken.

I use it to make instant pudding then mix the pudding with coolwhip and the resulting mousse tastes like cheese cake

I use it to make chicken and dumplings. I make drop dumplings by making the dough the same as I would for buttermilk biscuits.

My favorite smoothie has always been 1 cup buttermilk, one cup orange juice whirred together with frozen banana slices.

It sounds odd but it's surprisingly yummy.

Joe

Buttermilk freezes just fine. I use it as a starter for making cottage cheese from milk from a real cow that lives at a neighbor's house up the road. If it will start cottage cheese, it's good for baking.

This recipe from the Atlanta Journal/Constitution calls for two cups of buttermilk. The only change I would make is that the gelatin in two tablespoons water sets up really fast, so wait until you are ready to add it to the cream mixture.

Virginia Willis' Buttermilk Panna Cotta With Blackberry Coulis
6 servings

Hands on: 20 minutes
Total time: 6 hours, 20 minutes

Although the Italian dessert panna cotta translates as "cooked cream," in fact, you heat the heavy cream only long enough to dissolve the sugar and the gelatin. When testing the Rock Cream, it occurred to chef Virginia Willis that the dessert seemed very much like a panna cotta in taste and consistency and inspired her chef's version using buttermilk for a Southern flair and a garnish of blackberry coulis.

2 tablespoons water
1 (1/4-ounce) envelope unflavored gelatin
1 cup heavy cream
8 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
2 cups whole-fat buttermilk
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 pint blackberries, divided
1 tablespoon Chambord, optional (or water)
Pinch of salt

Put 2 tablespoons water into small bowl; sprinkle in unflavored gelatin. Let stand until gelatin softens, about 10 minutes.

Combine heavy cream and 7 tablespoons of the sugar in heavy medium saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves and mixture is hot but not boiling. Remove from heat; add gelatin mixture and stir until gelatin is completely dissolved and mixture is smooth. Transfer to a medium bowl and place over a bowl of ice water. Stir constantly to cool, 5 to 7 minutes. (Do not allow the gelatin to congeal.)

Stir the buttermik and vanilla extract into the cooled cream mixture. Pour mixture into 4-cup measuring cup. Divide mixture among six 3/4-cup custard cups or ramekins. Refrigerate until panna cotta is set, at least 6 hours and up to 1 day.

Meanwhile, in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment, puree half the blackberries, remaining 1 tablespoon sugar and Chambord (or water) with a pinch of salt until smooth. Strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds; set aside until ready to serve.

Run thin sharp knife around sides of each panna cotta to loosen. One at a time, place bottom of each custard cup in 1 inch of hot water 30 to 45 seconds; immediately invert custard cup onto plate. Using both hands, firmly grasp custard cup and plate together, shaking gently and allowing panna cotta to settle onto plate. Spoon reserved coulis around the panna cotta; garnish with remaining blackberries and mint. Serve immediately.

Per serving: 288 calories (percent of calories from fat, 48), 4 grams protein, 34 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, 16 grams fat (10 grams saturated), 57 milligrams cholesterol, 138 milligrams sodium.