Question for the Chef: What should I make with my extra buttermilk?

[metallica_band]

Hello Chef Niall. I am making some totally awesome buttermilk biscuits, but I have no use for the extra buttermilk. I haven't bought the ingredients for my biscuits yet because I don't want to waste any buttermilk. I don't use it in my cereal or oatmeal. I don't have anything that calls for buttermilk (I only have like a couple recipes) that I want to fix either at the moment either.

Any suggestions for a quick treat or maybe a soup that calls for a generous amount of buttermilk? At least with soup, I can make a large quantity, freeze it in single serving ziploc's or as a whole, and heat it up again later on in a crock pot. Maybe not as good as when it's freshly made, but it's still great tasting and no waste.

~ Michael

[tokenuser]

Chicken Fried Steak
Ranch Dressing
Extra Biscuits

pancakes
biscuit pizza
Add it to some milk and make some cheese.
gravy
mac-n-cheese.

[tommy19]

I've been in the same boat as (in Canada) I can only seem to find larger cartons of buttermilk and otherwise have very little use for it other than a batch of biscuits and the occasional batch of my Grandmother's fried chicken.

I've found however that you can substitute buttermilk for one cup of skim milk and one tablespoon of lemon juice (freshly squeezed is preferable). This provides the needed acidity without having to recalculate the amount of leavening agents added to the recipe.

You could technically use vinegar instead and the recipe would turn out virtually the same, however lemon juice promotes browning in baked goods and of course you'll want brown biscuits. (: You could use the lemon/milk mixture right away but it won't be nearly as thick as buttermilk. If you cool it down in the fridge for a bit before using the milk it will give the lemon juice time to denature some of the milk proteins and thicken the mixture.

And not to worry the lemon juice is virtually undetectable in the final product.


PS -- This information is originally garnered from Good Eats season 11, episode 4 starring Alton Brown but I have used it several times and can confirm that it does work really well.

[ronaldo]

One thing.... do not feel any rush. We keep buttermilk for a good six weeks after it has been opened with no problems. Buttermilk is already fermented so, essentially, it has already gone bad. That is not to say it won't eventually go worse but you have plenty of time.

Anything that is fried can benefit from the tang of buttermilk. There are many bread recipes and dressing recipes. I am unaware of a soup recipe and the one time I tried it, it was an umitigated disaster.

[masherscf]

Fried chicken!