How to Make Homemade Cultured Buttermilk
This homemade buttermilk recipe is insanely easy and very versatile! Once you have your own buttermilk you can use it to make other cultured dairy products.
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Two Kinds of Buttermilk
You might be surprised to know that there are technically two different kinds of buttermilk!
Leftovers from Butter Making
Real buttermilk is actually the skim milk that is leftover from making butter. When you take cream and churn it to butter, the milk fats all glob together and form the solid butter.
What is left behind is a skimmed milk with no fat. It’s thin and lightly sweet, but probably not the buttermilk most people are thinking of when we talk buttermilk.
Cultured Buttermilk
When you make biscuits, soda bread, pancakes, etc. with buttermilk, those recipes call for a traditional buttermilk. This will be a thick liquid, similar to a drinkable yogurt.
It has a strong tangy flavor and it is actually full of living bacteria! This is the good bacteria that help to promote a health gut biome.
Ingredients for Homemade Cultured Buttermilk
- One Quart Whole Milk (pasteurized or raw, either type of milk will work fine)
- Starter Culture
Where to Buy Starter Culture
Grocery Store
If you happen to have a specialty grocery store, like a really good co-op or maybe Whole Foods, they might have the type of buttermilk you need to get started.
It must say on it that it has “live cultures” or “live active cultures”, etc. Most store-bought buttermilk does not have these cultures present so it won’t work as a starter culture.
If you choose to use this as your starter, scroll down to “Making Buttermilk from Other Buttermilk” for instructions.
Powdered Cultures
If you are just getting started making buttermilk the best option is to buy a starter culture online. I like to use Cultures for Health or New England Cheesemaking Supply. You can also buy on Amazon if that’s your thing.
To get started I recommend buying a buttermilk culture. You can also use 1/4 tsp of a mesophilic culture if you are playing around with other cheesemaking and happen to have some on hand.
How to Make Cultured Buttermilk from Scratch
If your house is 70 degrees or warmer, simply let one quart of whole milk come to room temperature for about an hour.
Mix in the powdered starter culture (one packet of buttermilk culture, 1/4 tsp mesophilic culture, or 1/4 cup live buttermilk). If using a powdered culture, sprinkle it on top and let it rehydrate for two minutes.
Next, stir in the culture using an up and down motion.
Cover and let sit for 12-48 hours. After this point the milk should have thickened and developed a strong tangy flavor. If you are using the powdered culture it will likely take longer as it is reactivating.
Store in an airtight container (mason jars are my go-to) for up to a week.
If your house is cooler than 70 degrees, I recommend gently heating the milk to around 85 degrees F before adding the culture. In my YouTube video I show this process as it was fairly cool in our house yet.
Making Buttermilk from Other Buttermilk
My favorite thing about making homemade buttermilk is that once you have made a batch, you can keep it forever!
Each new batch of buttermilk can be started by using a scoop of the old. Always save 1/4 cup of your cultured buttermilk. Use this in place of store-bought cultures the next time you want a fresh batch!
What Else Can Buttermilk Make?
Because your homemade buttermilk is teaming with live active cultures, you can use it to make other cultured dairy products! Creme Fraiche is probably my favorite, but you can also use it to make sour cream.
Quick Buttermilk Recipes (Cheater Recipes!)
If you don’t have time to wait around for this to culture and you need buttermilk right now, you can make a quick buttermilk substitute.
There are a couple different ways you can do this. Take one cup of milk, stir in 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Let it sit for about 30 minutes.
It should thicken up and be a little tangy. Sometimes a second tablespoon of lemon juice is necessary to get the curdling action you are looking for.
Alternatively, you can add 1 tablespoon vinegar (raw apple cider vinegar or white vinegar work fine) to a cup of regular milk and stir it in. Sometimes adding another tablespoon of vinegar speeds up the process.
Both of these options will do in a pinch, but they won’t have exactly the same consistency as the real deal. As these aren’t a “Cultured” buttermilk, you also can’t use these as starters for other batches or for making other cultured dairy products.
Alternative Milk Buttermilks
Looking for some vegan options? You can’t make a true cultured buttermilk using non-dairy milks like almond milk, soy milk, or coconut milk.
You can however use the same simple ingredients and steps above in the Cheater Quick Buttermilk Recipe section with whatever alternative milk you’d like!
Even though this is an easy buttermilk substitute, you should know the end result going to be a little different so it might affect whatever recipe you are using it for.
Ways to Use Buttermilk
- Culture Other Homemade Dairy Products
- Pancakes
- Buttermilk Biscuits (here’s one of my favorite recipes)
- Irish Soda Bread
- Smoothies
- Buttermilk Fried Chicken
