How to Make Buttermilk

This is the magic ingredient that should be in every southerner's kitchen! It makes cakes light and tender, creates biscuits that can't be reproduced any other way, and so much more.

Don't let anyone tell you that lemon juice or vinegar plus milk is the same. It's a workable substitute used in baking breads and cakes only.

Don't want to scroll through the page to get to the recipe? Use the table of contents to click on the section you want to go to.

Jump to:

• ❤️ Why you'll love it
• 🥛 What is it?
• ⭐ Cultured buttermilk
• ♻️ Recultured buttermilk
• 💰 Rich buttermilk
• 🍋 Buttermilk substitutions
• 🥼 Safety: Sterilize your equipment
• 💭 Things to know
• 👩‍🍳 FAQs
• 📣 What readers are saying
• 📚 Related recipes
• 🥄 Restless Chipotle recommends
• 📞 The last word
• Rich Homemade Buttermilk
• ✍🏻 A note from Marye...

❤️ Why you'll love it

• You're in control of what goes in it.
• Always have buttermilk on hand when you need it.
• It's one more step in the direction of not depending on the supply chain.

Somewhere in my adult life, once I learned to cook, buttermilk became  a staple ingredient.

It makes pancakes fluffier, chicken more tender, cakes rise higher, and frosting takes on a tang.

Can we take a moment of silence to dream about tangy, creamy southern buttermilk pie?

It's also really  healthy stuff.

Buttermilk is one of those cultured dairy products, like yogurt, that contains probiotics. It's the secret sauce for millions of prizewinning recipes!

It's magic.

When you know how to make buttermilk you'll never worry about running out again. There's several ways to do it - and I'm sharing all of them!

You'll find over 50 ways to use this in the Best Buttermilk Recipes category!

🥛 What is it?

In the past buttermilk was the liquid that was leftover in the churn after mama had finished making butter. At some point she started buying butter at the grocery store and the world had to come up with another way to get it.

The answer was culturing milk with friendly bacteria, similar to the way yogurt is made.

⭐ Cultured buttermilk

Making homemade real buttermilk, the cultured kind, is really easy.

Once you have cultured your own buttermilk you just save a cup of it to start the next batch. Eventually the culture may weaken and you will need to get a new packet of culture or container of buttermilk from the store and begin the process again.

Cultured buttermilk tastes the same (or better!) than the commercial kind and you can drink it.

Ingredients

• Buttermilk starter culture
• Quart jar with lid
• 1 quart milk, 70-75 degrees - Any kind of milk is fine including soy, oat, almond, goat, etc...

Instructions

1. Sterilize a quart jar in hot water. It needs to be completely submerged for 10 minutes.
2. Add the 75F milk to the jar.
3. Add the starter culture.
4. Don't stir but let it sit for 10 minutes.
5. Stir to dissolve.
6. Cover with cheesecloth or coffee filter.
7. Let sit at room temperature (about 72F) for 12 to 24 hours, or until thick.
8. Cover with a twist on lid and refrigerate.

♻️ Recultured buttermilk

Another way to make homemade buttermilk is to reculture it by adding some cultured buttermilk to regular milk. This way you can create your own from what's leftover after you bake.

You can reculture your homemade buttermilk up to 4 or 5 times before you'll need a fresh starter (either the powder above or buttermilk from the store.)

Ingredients

• 1 quart milk, 70-75F
• ¼ cup buttermilk from the store

Instructions

1. Sterilize a 1 quart jar as above.
2. Add the milk and buttermilk to the jar and cover tightly.
3. Shake to blend.
4. Remove twist on cover and cover with cheesecloth or coffee filter.
5. Let stand at room temperature as above.
6. Cover with the twist on lid and refrigerate.

💰 Rich buttermilk

This is my favorite! When I make buttermilk I like to add a little cream to the mix to make it richer. It works wonders in baked goods!

1. Measure 2 ¾ cups of milk into the jar.
2. Add ¼ cup heavy cream
3. Add 1 cup of buttermilk
4. Screw on the lid tightly
5. Shake vigorously
6. Put it in a warm place for 24 hours

After 24 hours (less if your house is warm, more if it is very cold) you should have a tangy, thick buttermilk. Use it in any recipe that calls for buttermilk but save one cup to make your next batch. Keep it tightly covered in the fridge

🍋 Buttermilk substitutions

Homemade cultured buttermilk is the best and no matter what you substitute for it your results will be a little different.

Do not let anyone tell you that lemon juice and milk or vinegar and milk make buttermilk. They absolutely DO NOT.

Buttermilk substitutions are for baking only. There are many things you can't make with the substitutions such as buttermilk pie.

They make a passible substitution.

Vinegar and milk

This is the most common buttermilk substitute.

1. Add 1 tablespoon vinegar to a measuring cup.
2. Fill to the 1 cup mark with milk.
3. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes.
4. It will look a little curdled - that's ok.

Lemon juice and milk

1. Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice to a measuring cup.
2. Fill to the 1 cup mark with milk.
3. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes.
4. It will look a little curdled - that's ok.

Cream of tartar

1. Add 2 teaspoons cream of tartar to 1 cup of warm milk.
2. Stir well.
3. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes.

Sour cream

1. Mix ⅔ cups sour cream with ⅓ cup of milk or water.
2. Whisk until smooth.
3. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes.

Kefir

1. Add milk or water to kefir until it's the consistency of buttermilk.
2. Mix well.

Yogurt

1. Mix ¾ cup unflavored plain yogurt with ¼ cup milk or water.
2. Stir to blend.

🥼 Safety: Sterilize your equipment

Whenever you are working with cultures you have to make sure that you only introduce the bacteria (culture) that you want.

This means that you have to sterilize the equipment you are going to use. Every single time!

One more time. Always sterilize your equipment.

How to sterilize storage jars & equipment

1. Heat a big pot of water just to boiling.
2. Put the spoons, ladles, measuring cups, jars and lids (plus anything else you'll be using) in it for a 10 minutes. All equipment must be fully submerged in the water.
3. Lift it out, put it upside down on a freshly washed tea towel and let it come to room temperature.
4. While that isn't sterile enough for surgery it will be fine for our purposes.

💭 Things to know

Expert Tip: Cultured buttermilk can separate and still be fine. Always shake before using.

• Cultured buttermilk can get quite thick but it's never chunky. If it has chunks in it or mold on it throw it out.
• Be sure to sterilize your jars and equipment every time.
• Don't reculture buttermilk by just adding milk to your almost empty jar of homemade buttermilk.

👩‍🍳 FAQs

📣 What readers are saying

Jackey says, "Wow! This is amazing! I'm from uk and not much call for buttermilk in our recipes(not what I come across any ways) but I like Pinterest and and there is hundreds of recipes call for buttermilk and I have bought the stuff from supermarket and never liked it much as not used to it but your recipe is a game changer!! I'm substituting everything liquid for buttermilk haha! Thank you very very much! "

Carolyn says, "Thanks for sharing the Homemade Buttermilk recipe. I'm making my second batch. We live in the deep South, Mississippi, where we take our cornbread and biscuits seriously. My test taster, (husband), has announced the results of several "Test". He gives your buttermilk a 10, saying it greatly improves the taste and seems to make the texture lighter. Keep up the good work."

📚 Related recipes

• Buttermilk Bread
• Southern Biscuits
• What Can I Make with Leftover Buttermilk?

🥄 Restless Chipotle recommends

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You'll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.

• buttermilk culture
• quart size canning jars and lids
• tongs for lifting jars and lids out of the hot water

📞 The last word

Culturing buttermilk is very satisfying. I like the feeling of being a little independent from the supply chain.

After 24 hours (less if your house is warm, more if it is very cold) you should have a tangy, thick buttermilk.

Use it in any recipe that calls for buttermilk but always save one cup to make your next batch. Keep it tightly covered in the fridge for up to a week.

If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!

If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✍🏻 A note from Marye...

I know y'all don't always like the stories bloggers tell so when I have one I try to put it at the very bottom so you can read or skip as you like.

I get super frustrated with all of the instructions to "make buttermilk" with lemon juice and milk.

It's not buttermilk. You are making sour milk which will work but not as well.

It's like saying that you can make a pair of Louboutin shoes by painting the soles of your clearance-at-Target shoes red. Will they work? Sure. Is it the same?

No.

Cultured buttermilk takes the same amount of prep time as lemon juice and milk. You'll just need to remember to make it a day ahead of time.

I wrote this in 2012 and it was super popular for years. Then I forgot about it until a few weeks ago when it got super popular again. By the the original link was messed up in so many place that I had to put in on a new url.

And because of that the 100 or so comments were left behind. Try making your own cultured buttermilk just once and compare it to the same recipe where you used lemon juice and milk.

I think you'll understand my passion for making sure people know that there really IS a difference!

First published 2/27/2012. Last updated 2/16/2023 for better readability and more in depth information.