Wednesday Eats and Treats: Homemade Buttermilk & Dressing

Buttermilk gives an extra dose of deliciousness to so many foods, from waffles and pancakes to biscuits, cakes, and salad dressing. The problem is, I always find myself running out of the stuff. In a pinch, I've tried adding lemon juice to regular milk, but it's not the same. So, you can see why I was excited to discover a simple way of making my own buttermilk. It only takes a couple of minutes to combine the ingredients. You do need to plan ahead because the mixture needs to sit for 24 hours.

Simple Homemade Buttermilk

Ingredients:
3.5 cups of milk, whole, low-fat or skim
1/2 cup of buttermilk at room temperature

Directions:
Mix the milk and the buttermilk. Allow the mixture to sit in a warm place for 24 hours. Stir and refrigerate.

That's it. You have a fresh quart of buttermilk. Be sure to save 1/2 cup of the mixture to make the next fresh batch of homemade buttermilk.

Tips:
If you have milk that it sour, don't throw it away. It makes great buttermilk. 

Buttermilk freezes well, so if you have extra and it looks like you're not going to use it, pour it into pint size freezer bags, lay flat, and freeze. Then you'll always have buttermilk  at-the-ready.

Buttermilk Dressing

Ingredients:
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Spices: Begin with garlic and onion powders, add some dill or parsley. Try different combinations until you find one that suits you.

Directions:
Mix buttermilk, mayonnaise and spices with a whisk. 
For best flavor, chill for at least 3 hours.

Tips:

For dip, thicken dressing with additional mayonnaise.

Next week, I'll share my grandmother's recipe for buttermilk pancakes. You don't want to miss it!

Just in case you're a bit of an information hound like me, I found an interesting article on the history of buttermilk. Click the link if you care to read it.