Who wants to spend $4 on a quart of buttermilk when you need less than a cup for one recipe? Not me. Here’s what I do instead to make a buttermilk-like substitute for homemade pancake and southern buttermilk biscuit recipes in a pinch and save money doing it.
What is buttermilk?
It’s exactly what its name says– milk left over from churning butter.
Waste not, want not and all that. Let nothing go to waste in your from scratch kitchen! Use that butter’s milk!
But how many people are actually churning their own butter these days unless they have their own dairy cow (I wish!)
So for majority of us who do not make our own butter and thus, don’t often have left over milk from butter just culturing on the counter, this recipe is for us:
Buttermilk, but make it fast!
1 cup of milk (full fat is best, but can even use half and half)
1 tbsp distilled white vinegar
Here’s how you do it:
Mix the two ingredients together in a cup and allow it to sit for about 15 minutes at room temperature. Then use the “buttermilk” however is needed in your recipe.
Some math may be involved if your recipe calls for only 3/4 cup of buttermilk. Essentially meaning, 3/4 cup of milk plus 3/4 tbsp of distilled white vinegar (it’s okay to eyeball it. Do your best in your own from scratch kitchen, ma’am!)
What substitutes can I use instead of vinegar?
You have OPTIONS! Quite a few, in fact.
To make your own buttermilk, you can use:
- distilled white vinegar
- cream of tartar powder
- lemon juice
One tablespoon of either to the one cup of milk.
White vinegar, cream of tartar, and lemon juice are all the acid you need to mix with the milk to create the curdled milk you need for the recipe calling for buttermilk.
Alternatively to this whole from scratch kitchen hack, you can opt to use sour cream or even plain yogurt in the recipe that calls for buttermilk. Your recipe results should be very similar to using actual buttermilk.
The fun happens in a from scratch kitchen when you experiment and research what will work. Sometimes there are errors and other times you discover kitchen hacks that change how you cook meals for your family completely!
My sourdough discard pancake recipe calls for buttermilk and eggs but I’ll often substitute for plain yogurt instead of buttermilk AND eggs. One replacement for two ingredients… just based on what I have available in my from scratch kitchen that day. I often get the most compliments on my pancakes when I use yogurt! Bonus: those pancakes are nutrient dense!
What can I use buttermilk in?
Pancakes from scratch, southern buttermilk biscuits, and Ranch salad dressing come immediately to mind, my friend.
There are many other recipes, to be sure!
Here are a few from scratch recipes to try:
Ranch seasoning (ready for dressing and burgers!)
If you don’t make these kinds of recipes often, then this from scratch buttermilk recipe kitchen hack is perfect! Only make what you need when your recipe calls for it. Waste not, want not and save money in the process! Win-win.
This post does not contain any direct affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you, if you were to use said links. Placing this disclosure here due to the Link Tree found below this here, just in case. Always shop small, local, and/or direct when you can!
Why are from scratch recipes just better?
From scratch recipes are better than any thing else out there simply because you know every single ingredient.
From scratch is quite different from “homemade”. Anything made at home in your kitchen can be dubbed homemade. Even a jar of spaghetti sauce and a box of noodles is called homemade. Hamburger Helper is homemade. Banana pudding with Jell-o banana flavored pudding, Nilla wafers, and Cool Whip assembled together is homemade, right?
From scratch is different because you create it all from single source ingredients. You know and trust each ingredients and choose it well.
Does cooking from scratch take more time? Yes. A lot more time. Is it worth it to cook from scratch? Every single time.
The health benefits from knowing your meal doesn’t contain additives, preservatives, hidden icky ingredients, toxins, and more are enough of a reason why from scratch cooking is ELITE.
In summary, often times the word homemade and phrase from scratch are used interchangeably but just know there is a significant difference.
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MORE KITCHEN HACKS:
Don’t want to buy a bag of self-rising flour for one recipe? Try this simple hack instead!
Brown Sugar is so easy! Two ingredients only.
Make your own powdered sugar with a a blender and cane sugar.
No cook BBQ sauce keeps those caramel colored bottles out of your fridge.
Cream cheese frosting for cinnamon rolls
Pin this to try later
Buttermilk
Ingredients
Method
- Mix the two ingredients together in a cup.
- Allow it to sit for about 15 minutes at room temperature.
- Then use the "buttermilk" however is needed in your recipe.
