Cultured Buttermilk: Simple & Probiotic

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

Made with a mesophilic (room temperature loving) culture, means it is REALLY easy to make! This means homemade buttermilk is a simple and delicious alternative to homemade yogurt and milk kefir. Perfect for anyone looking to get more probiotics into their diet!

Types of Buttermilk

Homemade buttermilk falls into three different types:

1. Leftover from churning butter: Traditionally buttermilk was the leftover liquid from churning butter. It’s really fun and easy to make homemade butter. The resulting buttermilk is quite thin and slightly sweet.
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 and probiotics that come with cultured buttermilk.
3. Cultured buttermilk: Fermented buttermilk is made by fermenting milk with a bacteria culture. Not only is REALLY easy to make but it’s also packed full of flavor and probiotics!

Where to find culture for homemade buttermilk

The hardest part of making buttermilk is finding a good starter 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. 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 1/2 cup portions of buttermilk for future batches. It will remain vigorous for at least 4 months in the deep freeze.

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 dairy)!
• Culturing milk with buttermilk is a great way to preserve milk while camping or traveling. It doesn’t need to be kept cool.