Cultured Buttermilk: Simple & Probiotic

Cultured buttermilk is more than just soured milk used for baking. It is a probiotic beverage with a slightly cottage cheese-like flavor.

Made with a mesophilic (room temperature loving) culture, means it is REALLY easy! So homemade buttermilk is a simple and delicious alternative to homemade yogurt and milk kefir.

Types of Buttermilk

Homemade buttermilk falls into three different types:

1. Leftover from churning butter: Traditionally buttermilk is the leftover liquid from churning butter. It is quite thin and slightly sweet. It’s really fun and easy to make homemade butter.
2. Soured milk: Many homemade buttermilk recipes involve mixing milk with lemon juice or vinegar to create soured milk that is only good for baking. It lacks all the flavor that comes with cultured buttermilk.
3. Cultured buttermilk: Cultured buttermilk is usually made by fermenting skim milk with a bacteria culture. Not only is REALLY easy to make, it’s packed full of flavor and probiotics!

Where to find culture for homemade buttermilk

The hardest part of making buttermilk is finding a good culture! 

Not all grocery store brands of buttermilk have a good culture. You may have to experiment with a few different brands to find something that works. Here are a few things to look for:

• Smaller dairies
• Organic dairies
• Avoid short expiry dates (you want the freshest culture available)

In Ireland we used Cuinneog, and in Canada, we use Avalon buttermilk. Alternatively, you could buy a packet of buttermilk culture online.

Saving buttermilk culture

Buttermilk can be recultured over and over again. The only trick is to make sure that you maintain a vigorous culture. Here is how to save your culture for future batches of buttermilk:

• Buttermilk needs to be recultured every week to remain vigorous.
• Alternatively, freeze portions 1/2 cup of buttermilk for future batches. It will remain vigorous for at least 4 months.

How To Use Cultured Buttermilk

Cultured buttermilk is a delicious way to get a dose of probiotics. It is sweeter than yogurt and kefir. In Brittany, fermented lait ribot is more popular than milk!

Here are a few ways to enjoy cultured buttermilk:

• Buttermilk is perfect for providing acidity in soda bread, pancakes, and muffins.
• It can be served as a mild-tasting yogurt. To make thick, yogurt-like buttermilk, heat the milk like you would for yogurt, to denature the proteins. Then let it cool to room temperature before stirring in the culture. There’s no need to use a yogurt maker because it prefers temperatures around 72 F (22 C).
• Fermented buttermilk is perfect for smoothies.
• We use it instead of milk on our cereal in the morning. (I’m not even sure my kids know what cereal tastes like without fermented milk)!
• Culturing milk with buttermilk is a great way to preserve milk while camping or traveling. It doesn’t need to be kept cool.

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