MetaChat - Ask MeCha: buttermilk.

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29 August 2007

Ask MeCha: buttermilk. →[More:]

So I made some butter the other day (which was very fun and delicious) and the buttermilk I ended up with was VASTLY different from store-bought stuff. This was blue-ish, very sweet and light, with little grains of butter in it. The stuff from the store is kind of sour and curdy, in a pleasant way.

What gives? Why are they so different?

post by: Specklet at: 15:55 | 12 comments

The stuff you buy is "cultured" buttermilk, which is slightly fermented. The stuff you made is the real deal.

posted by small_ruminant 29 August | 16:39

Well, that would explain the sour, curdy thing! Which I like just fine. But fresh buttermilk is another thing altogether. Delishush.

posted by Specklet 29 August | 16:53

See, that sounds good. But store-bought buttermilk makes me wanna yak.*

*Not the animal.

posted by miss lynnster 29 August | 17:38

You don't want a yak? Who doesn't want a yak?

I only like the supermarket kind that has the little yellow butter bits in it.

In Russia the stuff they call kefir is buttermilk. Just so you know.

posted by small_ruminant 29 August | 17:42

Mmmm peach kefir...

posted by Specklet 29 August | 17:52

mmmm, yak butter.

posted by Elsa 29 August | 18:42

Re yak: you will find it exactly the thing.

Re buttermilk: my grandmother loved it, my mom still does, so I grew up assuming it was some kind of sophisticated grown-up milkshake.

posted by tangerine 29 August | 21:15

I wasn't aware that butter milk was so big over there. I should try it out the next time I can.

Soy Milk, now there's a drink that I used to love growing up as a kid.

posted by hadjiboy 30 August | 07:16

I've always had a grudge against soy milk. It isn't milk. They shouldn't call it that. They should just call it soy-bean juice. All these hippie parents tried to pass it off like it was milk, but your cereal just isn't the same, and neither are your brownies. I could go on...

posted by small_ruminant 30 August | 10:32

Well, I only use soy milk in cereal, and I think it's just more appetizing to think of it as milk rather than juice. The thought of pouring "soy juice" over my Wheat Chex kind of triggers my gag reflex. As for taste, it took awhile, but I totally got used to it, and now it just tastes like milk to me. (Again, only in cereal. I still won't drink the stuff.)

posted by Atom Eyes 30 August | 11:06

You mean it isn't what the soy mamas use to suckle their little soy babies? I'm crushed.

On second thoughts, I guess buttermilk isn't what the butter mamas use to suckle butter babies either. So maybe that's all right.

Oh, and hadjiboy, I don't think buttermilk is particularly big over here. It's probably safe to say that most people just use it to make pancakes now and then.

posted by tangerine 30 August | 13:14

Okay, when I was a kid I enjoyed a delicacy every now and again called "buttermilk soup," which consisted of cottage cheese in buttermilk. It's delicious.

Also try cottage cheese on saltine crackers.

posted by Hugh Janus 30 August | 13:31

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