What can I make with buttermilk?
Buttermilk is what makes a sauce feel finished, as long as it does not split. Recipes using buttermilk are below, followed by the temperature rules that keep it smooth.
4 recipes with buttermilk
Korean Fried Chicken
Crispy fried chicken in a sweet and spicy Korean-inspired sauce
Korean55m4Classic Irish Soda Bread
Soft and delicious bread with a golden crust, perfect for serving with butter or jam.
Irish60m8Buffalo Chicken
A spicy and savory dish made with chicken, buffalo sauce, and blue cheese.
American70m4
Æbleskiver
Whisk the flour, salt, sugar, baking soda, and cardamom together in a large bowl.
Norway4
Cooking with buttermilk without splitting or clumping
- 1Bring buttermilk closer to room temperature before it meets heat; cold dairy in a hot pan is what curdles.
- 2Add it off the heat or on the lowest setting, stirring constantly.
- 3A teaspoon of flour or cornstarch stabilises a sauce and keeps it glossy.
- 4Salt and acid go in at the end - both encourage splitting when added early.
What goes well with buttermilk
Buttermilk is at its best with garlic, herbs, lemon, flour, black pepper and nutmeg. Any two or three of those, plus buttermilk, is already a dinner rather than an ingredient list.
Storing buttermilk
Keep buttermilk in the main body of the fridge, not the door, where the temperature swings most. Wrap cheese in paper rather than plastic so it can breathe. Hard cheeses freeze acceptably for cooking; fresh dairy does not freeze well.
Substituting buttermilk
If you are out of buttermilk, look for something that behaves the same way in the pan rather than something that tastes the same. Match the moisture level, the cooking time, and the richness, and adjust the liquid slightly if your substitute releases more water. When in doubt, describe what you actually have in the chat and Mr. Chef will rewrite the recipe around it.
Buttermilk recipes: common questions
- What can I make with buttermilk and not much else?
- Plenty. With buttermilk plus an onion, garlic, oil, and salt you already have the base of a skillet dinner, a soup, or a simple sauce. Add a starch - rice, pasta, bread, or potatoes - and it becomes a full meal. The recipes above are ordered so the ones needing the fewest extra items come first.
- What is the quickest buttermilk recipe?
- Look for the entries above marked 20 minutes or less. As a rule, anything cut small and cooked in a hot pan beats anything roasted whole, and one-pan recipes save more time in cleanup than in cooking.
- Can I substitute buttermilk?
- In most recipes yes, as long as the replacement plays a similar role - similar moisture, similar cooking time, similar richness. Swapping across roles (a watery vegetable for a starchy one, for instance) usually needs a change in liquid or cooking time too.
- How do I use up leftover buttermilk?
- Fried rice, a frittata, a grain bowl, a soup, or a quesadilla will absorb almost any leftover buttermilk without a recipe. If you want something specific, tell Mr. Chef exactly what is in the fridge and it will build a recipe around it.