Stretching your dollar: The Wonders of Buttermilk

Oh the wonders of church!  A lady from my church taught me this trick when I was telling her I use the old sour your milk trick.  She told me that she feels like this tastes better, so she sticks to the real thing.  I like it either way but in case you like the real deal too, here’s an awesome tip for you. If you are in a pinch and need to know how to make buttermilk just with the powdered milk or regular milk you have on hand, just skip to the bottom!

Printable Recipe

The Wonders of Buttermilk
If you already have store bought buttermilk and prefer the taste of actual buttermilk to that of soured milk, you don’t have to spend lots of time and hard earned money on real buttermilk from the store.

Streching your store bought buttermilk
1 c store bought buttermilk
3 c regular milk (Many people prefer whole because it is creamier, but skim will work)

To stretch your buttermilk, all you will need is 1 container of buttermilk.  (You can usually find an 8 oz container for less than .50 at the store) and 3 cups of regular milk.  Get one of your quart sized canning jars and add the two milks into the jar and allow it to sit on the countertop for 12 hours.  (Some sources say 8-24 hours, but as long as it is sticking to the sides of the jar and looking thicker, you’re in business!)  The way this works is the the cultures that are in the buttermilk (Lactobaccillus according to ehow) ferment with the regular milk making it naturally soured.  

Tips for success: If you don’t have a glass jar, do not despair you can wait until your buttermilk container is nearly empty, then add regular milk to the regular container.  Just remember the 1:3 ratio.  Good news is that this lasts for weeks so you will have plenty of time to make buttermilk pancakes, waffles, buttermilk syrup, banana bread, ranch dressing,.... okay I need to stop because my mouth is watering.
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Streching your store bought buttermilk from food storage
What if you don’t have regular milk?  Just mix up some powdered milk to go with it.  If you are using a glass jar as per the example, just fill it with:

4 cups or 1 quart of buttermilk
3 c warm water
½ c + 1 T of powdered milk (9 T if you want to do it the long way ;)
1 c buttermilk

Mix warm water and powdered milk well. Then add buttermilk.  Allow to sit on the counter at least 8 hours (I would probably wait 12 if I had the choice) then refrigerate for up to a couple weeks.

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Buttermilk strictly from food storage
If you are living strictly on food storage and don’t have the time, money or desire to go to Walmart and need buttermilk in a pinch, use the good ole’ sour your milk trick.  I use this 99% of the time.

Butermilk: Yields 1 cup
1 c warm water
1 t white vinegar or lemon juice
3 T powdered milk

Mix ingredients together and allow to sit for 5 minutes then add to the recipe in place of buttermilk. Voila!

Tips for success: For those of you with lactose intolerance, this trick works great with Moo’s Milk (a milk alternative).

This is the consistency you are hoping to achieve.  As you can 

see it is thick enough to stick to the edges. It should look kind of viscous.   Now that I have a gallon of buttermilk, I can't wait to see what recipes everyone throws at me!

This link had some information on making buttermilk from raw milk over a period of days. Although that would not be a regular thing for me, its a good thing to know if you are living in a long term emergency food situation. Interesting.

Thanks for stopping by!


Question of the Day:
What recipes do you use buttermilk in?

Be sure to try this out in Brianna's Mini Corndog Recipe!


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