What can you do with buttermilk?

[Aimless]

So I made cultured butter and, in addition to almost 400g of butter I got about 6 dl of tangy, lecithin-y buttermilk goodness.

Alas, buttermilk doesn't feature in Swedish cooking and baking.

So, I ask you, the American people:

What can/should I cook or bake with buttermilk? I'm looking for things that make excellent use of this strange ingredient. Things that can't be made properly without it. Things that taste great because of it. Things that can display its tangy emulsifying powers.

[Catgrrl]

Scones, muffins, cakes. I don't have any recipes right on hand but I've used buttermilk to make all of those things at one time or another. I know I've used it when making cranberry-orange scones a few years ago...

EDIT: I think you can use it to make pancakes and waffles too.

[evenstar]

I use it in an apple oven-pancake. So delicious! I'll see if I can get you the recipe.

Edit: Here it is:

3 tablespoons butter or margarine

Apple mixture:
4 medium cooking apples, peeled, thinly sliced (about 6 cups)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Batter:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons oil or melted butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs

1 tablespoon cinnamon-sugar
Maple-flavored syrup, if desired

• Heat oven to 450°F. In oven, melt 3 tblsp. butter in 10-inch ovenproof or cast-iron skillet, about 2 minutes. Add apples, brown sugar and cinnamon; toss to coat apples. (Pan will be very hot.) Bake 2 minutes longer; stir. Bake 3 minutes longer; stir again. Reduce oven temperature to 400°F.
• In large bowl, beat flour, baking powder, salt, oil (or butter), granulated sugar, buttermilk, lemon juice, vanilla and eggs with whisk or fork until blended. Pour over apples.
• Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar. Cut into wedges. Drizzle with syrup. Serve immediately.

Makes 8 servings




I tend to start the apples on the stovetop instead of in the oven, and I usually substitute brown sugar for the regular sugar in the batter and we don't use any maple syrup, but it is always one of my boyfriend's favorite Sunday morning treats.

[Bitter Jeweler]

I use it in an apple oven-pancake. So delicious! I'll see if I can get you the recipe.

Edit: Here it is:

3 tablespoons butter or margarine

Apple mixture:
4 medium cooking apples, peeled, thinly sliced (about 6 cups)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Batter:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons oil or melted butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs

1 tablespoon cinnamon-sugar
Maple-flavored syrup, if desired

• Heat oven to 450°F. In oven, melt 3 tblsp. butter in 10-inch ovenproof or cast-iron skillet, about 2 minutes. Add apples, brown sugar and cinnamon; toss to coat apples. (Pan will be very hot.) Bake 2 minutes longer; stir. Bake 3 minutes longer; stir again. Reduce oven temperature to 400°F.
• In large bowl, beat flour, baking powder, salt, oil (or butter), granulated sugar, buttermilk, lemon juice, vanilla and eggs with whisk or fork until blended. Pour over apples.
• Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar. Cut into wedges. Drizzle with syrup. Serve immediately.

Makes 8 servings




I tend to start the apples on the stovetop instead of in the oven, and I usually substitute brown sugar for the regular sugar in the batter and we don't use any maple syrup, but it is always one of my boyfriend's favorite Sunday morning treats.

I hate to admit that I looked for the "Like" button under that post.

[evenstar]

I hate to admit that I looked for the "Like" button under that post.

Hehe!

You should try it - so good. It's actually an old Bisquick recipe, but since I'm not sure if Aimless can get Bisquick in Sweden, I modified it for him. Should still be good, though... I hope.

[wiggin]

Buttermilk is a central ingredient in a cold cucumber soup I've made frequently. It's a great summer soup:

1.5 med cucumbers
1/2 tsp chopped parsley
1/4 cup celery, chopped
2 tablespoons snipped dill
white part of 2 scallions
1 quart of buttermilk
1 pint of half/half sour cream (reduced fat sour cream works)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
salt to taste
1/2 cucumber for garnish

Peel cucumbers, cut open and remove seeds. Blend first seven ingredients together in batches. Stir lemon juice and salt into soup. Chill. Serve cold with paprike or red pepper and chopped cucumber garnish.

(And is buttermilk uniquely American?)

[Bitter Jeweler]

Put it in your smashed tators!

[CitizenCain]

You could mix it with scotch, if you don't mind ruining your scotch.

I've heard some shit about drinking whiskies mixed with buttermilk, but I don't have any recipes, or ideas as to why one would want to ruin a perfectly good liquor with buttermilk.

[Aimless]

Thanks guys, keep 'em coming!

The first thing I'll try are buttermilk biscuits. I hesitated until I realised American biscuits aren't the same as British biscuits but rather like scones which is more or less exactly what I was hankering for.

That apple cake looks freakin' delicious... I'll have to find a suitable pan, I suppose. And omnomnom it with clotted cream

[Aimless]

Btw buttermilk isn't uniquely American, it's just that I only look for cooking info in English and Swedish Buttermilk used to be available in Sweden, but then the companies started changing the butter-making process in such a way that there was no longer any left-over buttermilk to sell. About ten years ago the last company caved, and, because the govt. refused to pay market price for our buttermilk rations, we lost it

[Illusions]

You can make buttermilk icing, and also biscuits (the flaky, doughy American kind, not the cookie)...

[ImAnOgre]

Batter your chicken with buttermilk, flour, and spices of choice in order to fry -- southern fried chicken. (also, make some buttermilk gravy, YUM!!!)

[GGT]

Buttermilk waffles, pancakes, and biscuits (bread rolls) are southern American breakfast traditions. Fluffier than other kinds. If you like Belgian waffles, you'll love buttermilk waffles, and won't need a special waffle iron.

[DecoyMilk]

You call bread rolls biscuits?

[wiggin]

Actually, American biscuits are closer to a scone than a bread roll. In the UK and much of the rest of the English speaking world they seem to think that biscuits are cookies. Never quite got that, but oh well.

[DecoyMilk]

Cookies and biscuits are 2 different things.

[Timbuk2]

Cookies and biscuits are 2 different things.

Indeed.

Biscuits:






Cookies:

[Nessus]

Keksi kun keksi, saatana sentään, teidän perhanan anglikaanien vouhotus koko asian ympärillä on yhtä kummallista kuin I can't believe it's not butter. I mean really.

[Aimless]

Buttermilk biscuits were delicious and great. And so fricking easy to make (although probably difficult to perfect). I took every shortcut possible and made the dough in a food processor. Used the butter I'd made, leaving just enough to spread on the biscuits later served with butter and apple butter, horseradish cream cheese and fried mushrooms. And lots of tea of course

[Khendraja'aro]

A quick question to the Americans: What the hell of a measuring unit is "cup"?

I just looked into my cupboard and there at least 3 different sorts of cups.

[Illusions]

A quick question to the Americans: What the hell of a measuring unit is "cup"?

Eight Fluid Ounces is equivalent to One Cup. Our measurements were based upon averages of commonly available things, for instance feet based upon average length of a person's foot, inches based upon average length of the end of the thumb (above last joint to tip), or in this instance, average volume of liquid that a cup could hold. They make sense from the perspective of a time period when someone might not have every measuring device under the sun available for instantaneous purchase or usage, but not so much in modern society. Ideally a cup, or the thing you use to drink beverages out of, should either be 8 ounces, or hold some even multiple of fluid, for instance 12 ounces = 1.5 cups, 16 ounces = 2 cups, 20 ounces = 2.5 cups, and you'll see, at least in the US that many "cups" are made to contain these volumes of fluid, and are often marked as such.

[Aimless]

I like the duodecimal love

[Illusions]

I like the duodecimal love

Just think of it this way. You and another person are dropped amnesiac of modern science into the wilderness. You have to communicate ideas of distances, volumes, etc. with one another in order to survive. Your friend has to tell you how far away a source of fresh water he's discovered is. Do you use the distance light travels in a vacuum in a very small fraction of an amount of time, or the average length of your digits and appendages?

[Khendraja'aro]

Just think of it this way. You and another person are dropped amnesiac of modern science into the wilderness. You have to communicate ideas of distances, volumes, etc. with one another in order to survive. Your friend has to tell you how far away a source of fresh water he's discovered is. Do you use the distance light travels in a vacuum in a very small fraction of an amount of time, or the average length of your digits and appendages?

Well, if my friend's a dwarf and I'm a giant, that might not work out so well.

[Illusions]

Well, if my friend's a dwarf and I'm a giant, that might not work out so well.

You have bigger problems if you're telling me that it would be easier to develop a system of measurement based off of the distance light travels in a set amount of time, as opposed to say, a system of measurement based off of the averages of your digits, appendages, etc. (for instance, a unit of length is 1 length of his foot, and .5 of yours). So when he says that the source of fresh water is 300 feet away, you'll know that it'll be 150 of your feet away. Good luck with the distance light travels thing though. I'm certain you'll develop an agreed upon, and repeatable scientific method of measuring it from scratch before you both die of dehydration.

[CitizenCain]

Well, if my friend's a dwarf and I'm a giant, that might not work out so well.

You have bigger problems [...]

Like the wish he made with an evil genie to get stranded in the middle of the wilderness with a dwarf and a giant, for example? Or would dying of thirst with a giant and a dwarf be more of a "God killing you for pissing him off" type of situation?

[DecoyMilk]

I'd just say 'Walk in a straight line till you hit water'

[Khendraja'aro]

Yes, my dear. The SI system is still standard, not because it's arbitrary, but because almost everyone save for some moronic countries have agreed to measure stuff in the same way. To argue about "circular reasoning" only shows that you do not understand why there are standards and why you have to pick some point and say: That's what we use as a base to derive everything else from.

I mean, just look at "mile". Do you mean: UK miles, US miles or nautical miles?

[Illusions]

Yes, my dear. The SI system is still standard, not because it's arbitrary, but because almost everyone save for some moronic countries have agreed to measure stuff in the same way. To argue about "circular reasoning" only shows that you do not understand why there are standards and why you have to pick some point and say: That's what we use as a base to derive everything else from.

Hi, I'm Khen, and I'm taking a lighthearted talk/debate about the usefulness and nature of measurements very personally, and you are a stupid head for disagreeing. *Pout*

...

I mean, just look at "mile". Do you mean: UK miles, US miles or nautical miles?

A Jupitarian mile obviously.

Just a thought, but what is your plan for describing a meter, to say...Aliens, who have no idea of how long it takes the Earth to make one complete revolution about its axis, or how long it takes the Earth to make a complete revolution around the sun, or that we decided to subdivide these units into common multiples of 2, 6, 12, and 15? It seems meter and feet are both completely worthless, and non-universal here.

Most of the SI units are sensible for describing everyday things even if I cannot use my body as a good proxy for most of them, and for instance I would personally prefer metric time but Communism collapsed before they could correct the Earth's rotation... What's the std of meter vs. average step and foot vs. average foot? That's how I visualize a meter. And the separation between your finger-tips with arms held out to the sides is also a rough approximation;

Its sensible to describe a meter as the distance light travels in a very small, fraction of a second? A fraction of time thats been carefully chosen so that distance is a meter? I understand that other SI units are probably far more intuitive, but Khen and I were discussing volumes, and lengths, which arose when Khen asked why his bastardized versions of cups didn't measure out exactly, or some multiple of, a cup.

I have a hard time visualizing distances as multiples of my own foot as that isn't how human locomotion actually works.

Which is why the Romans used the Pace and the Mile.

You just develop a back-bone for these things. That SI is also nicely usable for things scientific is a bonus, really, but it also lowers the barrier of entry between common day experience and science. Of course for example I tend to use things like electron volts in casual conversation, but the principle is the same and I can roughly work out the conversion between macroscopic energies and keV.

If you were dropped into an environment deprived of the modern conveniences of scientific measuring devices, would you still think it easy to use a meter and liters for measurement?

I'm not sure how you'd define non-arbitrary measures without first creating the new Soviet man who in addition to ideological purity always grew into the same physical dimensions. Seems like a lot of hassle to me.

What I was arguing is that lacking scientific measuring devices, one of the first, and most useful forms of measurement that are going to be developed in a culture (or in my example, a two person group stranded in the middle of nowhere), are going to be ones based off of commonly available things, and appendages are commonly available. They may not be the same, but its relatively easy to agree upon a base unit going from there.

[Nessus]

Its sensible to describe a meter as the distance light travels in a very small, fraction of a second? A fraction of time thats been carefully chosen so that distance is a meter? I understand that other SI units are probably far more intuitive, but Khen and I were discussing volumes, and lengths, which arose when Khen asked why his bastardized versions of cups didn't measure out exactly, or some multiple of, a cup.

I think you are confusing two things. The meter, as it is, is convenient around the other SI basic units as well as being something that is relatively simple for a human being to comprehend in their everyday life (the spread between two finger-tips, the fact that most people are around 1.7 meters tall, so on); it is defined by the speed of light because we are very precise at measuring the speed of light. I am sad to say that even with my level of measuring precision one tends to use sticks and rods to define real-world distances, and the accuracy of instrumentation for things that are too tiny for sticks. I have never once defined for myself the meter as some multiple of light's passing.

Which is why the Romans used the Pace and the Mile.

The romans also had population-wide lead poisoning and they sacrificed animals to their gods. As I said before, how would we go about making a non-arbitrary measurement system without human dimensional homogeneity? We no longer have kings to define our feet for us.

If you were dropped into an environment deprived of the modern conveniences of scientific measuring devices, would you still think it easy to use a meter and liters for measurement?

In such a scarcity situation, I would use whatever measurements I could muster given that I would be so deprived of food, supplies and cooking energy that the difference between a mile and a kilometre would be mostly trivial; it takes me 2 hours to walk there through the path with the slippery tree roots, that sort of business. Even if we assume I had access to materiel to create small power plants in streams using electro-magnetism, I would just try it out to see how much power I got out of the system, the order-of-magnitude-calculation for determining a good-sized water wheel etc would be just that, and I would either way expect errors of order of magnitude, not fifteen percent.

What I was arguing is that lacking scientific measuring devices, one of the first, and most useful forms of measurement that are going to be developed in a culture (or in my example, a two person group stranded in the middle of nowhere), are going to be ones based off of commonly available things, and appendages are commonly available. They may not be the same, but its relatively easy to agree upon a base unit going from there.

Which is a conversation useful in discussing television series and post-apocalyptic scenarios. Neither are inherently worth-while to our industrialized, technocratic civilization.