I love buttermilk and just discovered I don't have to buy it because
all I have to do is take a spoonful of old buttermilk and add it to
fresh milk and within a few days I have as much creamy, tangy
buttermilk as I need.

Anyway, I found that buttermilk can substitute for butter or cream up
to a point, especially if mixed with olive oil. The tongue still
needs a certain amount of fat for pleasure sensation, and usually
butter fills that need but olive oil can can also provide the fatty
sensation. The tongue still needs the tang of butter, and buttermilk
with almost no fat provides that. A combination of butter, olive oil,
and buttermilk can produce a spread that almost mimics butter, but
with much less total fat, saturated fat, and much of the saturated
fat replaced with monounsaturated fat which is good for you (you might
even toss in a bit of flax or fish oil to add the essential omega-3
fatty acids).

Buttermilk can't be used in everything, for some reason it coagulates
when heated in certain conditions, but in other conditions it blends
perfectly with the other ingredients. I think it has to do with fat,
it always seems to blend with fatty foods, but if you were to bring
it to a boil alone it would coagulate into a bunch of nasty granules.

I make butter/olive oil/buttermilk spread for biscuits and it is very
good but you have to be careful to adjust the buttermilk for the
moisture/dryness of the biscuits because as it just feels like fat, it
is actually water and will make the bread soggy. It is just superb
for corn on the cob, though. And right now I've used it to prepare
Lipton noodles, replacing the 2tbl of butter with about half the
butter, some olive oil, and buttermilk. So delicious, you can't tell
that much of the butter is missing.

Campbell's Tomato, Cream of Chicken, and Cheddar Cheese soups blend
especially well with buttermilk. Also any variety of packaged noodles
including the Lipton and Pasta-Roni brands, and any sort of macaroni
and cheese product. And sour cream, since buttermilk and sour cream
are both fermented with the same two bacteria strains, they can be
mixed to produce a lower-fat but still good-tasting dip.

For spread, melt butter, and as it cools add olive oil then finally
buttermilk (and maybe a bit of salt and perhaps garlic, parmesan,
etc.) and stir thourougly before applying to bread and lightly
toasting (this helps to remove some of the buttermilk's moisture).

You dont make your own butter from cream then?

I end up with loads of buttermilk, good stuff it is too

Shirl

The two of you are talking about different things!

You're talking about the liquid left over when churning butter. The other
poster is talking about a cultured milk product that has nothing to do
with making butter.

Buttermilk in the US is not the same as buttermilk in the UK.


: You dont make your own butter from cream then?

: I end up with loads of buttermilk, good stuff it is too

: Shirl

> if you were to bring
> it to a boil alone it would coagulate into a bunch of nasty granules.

That sounds a lot like a Norwegian cheese called "Gjetost"