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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Cultured Buttermilk
Buttermilk can be made by fermenting milk with a buttermilk culture. Cultured buttermilk is a flavorful and probiotic drink. It is a delicious substitute for yogurt and perfect for baking!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 2 1/2 cups 1x
- Category: Beverage
- Method: Fermented
- Cuisine: Traditional
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 2 cups milk (whole or skim)
- 1/2 cup cultured buttermilk
Instructions
- Mix the buttermilk and milk in a clean glass jar.
- Put the lid on the jar and leave the jar to ferment on the counter for 4-12 hours (see notes). Buttermilk thickens best at temperatures of around 68F to 86F (20C to 30C). So expect it to take a bit longer if it’s colder than that.
- Taste the buttermilk to decide when it is done. It should taste slightly sour and a bit like cottage cheese.
- Store in the refrigerator and use within 2 weeks.
Notes
- The first time you make buttermilk, it may take a little longer (up to 24 hours) to achieve a nice flavor. It will depend on the quality of your buttermilk culture. However, once you’ve established your culture, it should ferment quickly.
- If it hasn’t fermented within 24 hours, then the culture wasn’t alive and vigorous. If this happens, then I recommend trying a different brand. See the section above for more information on finding good buttermilk cultures.
- To maintain an active culture, make buttermilk at least once a week. See the section above for other options.
Keywords: probiotic, cultured, gluten free, easy, healthy, yogurt, kefir
Help! First time making and it took for ever to thicken. House no doubt not warm enough too. Tried during the day to warm up. Smell was delicious and sweet. Just seemed to be thickening and thought I would leave it out just a bit longer. About 1 – 1 1/2 hours later curdled. Separated. Maybe not as sweet. I assume heading to a vinegary state. Is it still okay? Still has a sweet smell. I was so excited! Hope I don’t have to start over?
The first time you culture buttermilk, it takes a while to kick start (depending on the strength of the culture.) It sounds fine, just a little strongly cultured. It can still be used to make your next batch of buttermilk. And use it for baking if you find it too strong tasting. Enjoy!
This sounds fun and delicious. I want to make sure I understand the process. First I would have to buy the culture you recommend. (As an aside, I see it consists of five packets. Once I have an active culture would I need the other four?) After making the first batch of culture, I would reserve half a cup or a cup for future batches. I could make those any time up to two weeks after the previous batch. Do I understand the process correctly? Thanks.
Hi Barry,
If you are buying the packets of culture, then I recommend saving the extra 4 packets and reculture the buttermilk with your saved culture. Then you can always start with a fresh packet later on. Sometimes cultures will change slightly over time. So I usually only reuse a culture for a few months before restarting with a fresh culture. That’s because I also culture milk kefir… and it tends to start to take over after a little while. 🙂
Cheers, Emillie
Hello, Here in Ireland in the local supermarket they offer, cultured or natural buttermilk. Neither seem to mention probiotics on the package. Which is best to purchase f=to get the benefits of probiotics ? Thank You.
Hi Michael, I used to live in Maynooth, so I know a bit about Irish buttermilk! I really liked Cuinneog. It had a strong culture that I even used to make cottage cheese. Good luck!
My Mom made homemade buttermilk that had a wonderful taste all it’s own. It was like taste bud tweaking like a very slight Dill pickle pucker. Absolutely delicious. I going to find the culture you mentioned and give it a try! Loved her buttermilk!
Buttermilk is delicious! Good luck finding a culture.
This was awesome, though mine was a bit thick.
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Try culturing for a shorter time. It shouldn’t get too thick. Cheers!
I made some cultured butter a couple weeks ago and used the resulting buttermilk to culture a batch of buttermilk. it was so thick and creamy. I’ve been reculturing batches from that first batch ever since! its wonderful. I use it for pancake/waffles and biscuits and scones.. i can’t convince my kids to drink it yet- maybe a berry smoothie?! Most recipes i see call for a tablespoon of cultured buttermilk per cup of milk, i notice that you used much more buttermilk, (like i did), and it seems to make it much thicker than the store bought buttermilk! great recipe and instructions! thank you!
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Glad this recipe worked for you! I like nice thick buttermilk (and cultured butter, yum!) If you want to skip the trouble of mixing a smoothie, maybe try mixing a bit of juice into the buttermilk for your kids? I find a little bit of extra sweetness helps. Cheers!