MAR
22
Kitchen Tip: Homemade Buttermilk Substitute
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I prefer to use real buttermilk in recipes as often as I can. I love the flavor that it ads to recipes like pancakes and scones, but I don’t think that buttermilk substitutes are quite as good as the real deal.
What I think doesn’t matter though, because sometimes something has to give. We’ve all been there. Mid-recipe you realize that the ingredients call for buttermilk and there’s none in the refrigerator. No one wants to make a special trip to the grocery store for just one item, so you have to make do with a substitute.
For those type of situations it is nice to have this kitchen tip up your sleeve. With common ingredients you can easily make homemade buttermilk to use in your recipes.
5 Homemade Buttermilk Substitutes
Some of these substitute recipes are easier than others in a pinch. My most commonly used method is with lemon or vinegar, but the others are helpful as well. All of the methods start with milk, so you’ll need to have that on hand.
Cream of Tartar
Measure 1 3/4 tablespoon cream of tartar plus 1 cup milk. Whisk to combine and let stand at room temperature for 5-10 minutes, until curdled and then stir.
Lemon Juice
Add one tablespoon of lemon juice to a liquid measuring cup. Then, add milk until the amount reaches one cup. Let the mixture stand at room temperature for 5-10 minutes. The milk should look curdled. Stir and you have homemade buttermilk!
Plain Yogurt
You can easily make a buttermilk substitute with 2 tablespoons milk plus enough plain yogurt to equal one cup. Stir to combine and then use your as recipe instructs.
Sour Cream
If you have sour cream on hand you can easily make a buttermilk substitute by thinning the sour cream with a bit of milk until it reaches the consistency of buttermilk. Stir to combine and then use your as recipe instructs.
White Vinegar
Add one tablespoon of white vinegar to a liquid measuring cup. Then, add milk until the amount reaches one cup. Let the mixture stand at room temperature for 5-10 minutes. It should look curdled. Stir and you have homemade buttermilk!
BONUS
Depending on the recipe, I have used canned coconut milk as a substitute for the buttermilk. BUT you have to use your personal discretion on this one because the flavor is certainly different, plus some recipes need the acidity of Buttermilk (or one of the substitutes) to react with the leavening agent. Two recipes that I’ve recently used this substitution with are Lemon Coconut Cupcakes and Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes, but like I said: use your personal discretion.
Buttermilk Recipes for your Inspiration:
- Strawberry Scones with Meyer Lemon
- Buttermilk Cinnamon Sugar Biscuits
- Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes
- Chicken Pot Pie with Biscuit Crust
- Lemon Cookies with Almond
What are your favorite kitchen substitutes?
About the Author:
Katie’s lifelong interest in cooking good food has shown her that part of the goodness in life is enjoying delicious food with friends and family. She is: Writer. Photographer. Recipe Developer. Website Founder. Lover of all things good in life. Wife & Mom. A mix of great recipes, family memories, and yummy photography is what Katie serves up each week at GoodLife Eats™. Katie resides in Colorado with her husband and two children.
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Hello! I'm Katie Goodman, author of GoodLife Eats Etc. where I share what I find in my life. A mix of great recipes, family memories, adventures, good reads, and anything else that I love is what you will discover here.
I never even buy buttermilk anymore- I just throw it out!
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Thanks for sharing all of the options!
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Thanks for share is very useful, mostly for me that is very hard to found on market here.
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It’s good to know there are more options than just lemon juice! Awesome!
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Hadn’t thought about cream of tartar… good point.
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I love all your suggestions, but I also think it’s worth mentioning (and you may not know) that you can get powdered buttermilk. It keeps in the fridge for pretty much ever, and you add it to the dry ingredients of your recipe. Then you add plain water in the amount that the recipe calls for of buttermilk. I’ve used it in tons of recipes and it works really well. We don’t keep a lot of milk based products in the house other than half and half because neither of us uses them.
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Katie replied: — March 22nd, 2011 @ 1:15 PM
I have seen it in the stores before but never personally used it. Thanks for sharing.
I substitute it with the lemon/ milk option most of the time. Works great.
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I had no idea you could use cream of tartar to make buttermilk! Thanks for this post!
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Fabulous post Katie! So informative. As always, love love love your photos.
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Just another fan of powdered buttermilk.
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Wow! I never ever knew that there were so many options!
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I have used lemon to make my own buttermilk many times before. It works great!
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Great tip, Katie. It’s so easy to make your own buttermilk. I use the lemon method mostly. It works like a charm!
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I use lemon w/ non-dairy milk (almond or soy) to make vegan “buttermilk”. It works great!
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genie replied: — March 31st, 2011 @ 11:13 AM
I do that too! But, I’ve been using apple cider vinegar and almond milk… makes the best whole wheat pancakes I’ve ever had!
Thanks for the great info! Does this only work with cows milk or will it work with Rice or Almond milk as well?
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I had no idea there were so many options! Awesome!
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I either use the lemon juice option or the vinegar option. I never buy buttermilk anymore as I honestly can’t tell the difference when I use the real thing or one of these substitutes!
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Just today I used pineapple coconut juice in my banana bread instead of buttermilk. Turned out great!
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I always seem to be running out of buttermilk. I’ve tried most of these substitutions, but never heard about cream of tartar.. I’ll keep that in mind!
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I’ve never used cream of tartar to make a buttermilk substitute before, what a great idea, I always have that in my pantry.
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I use the white vinegar trick most of the time. Sometimes I use yogurt as it is as substitute and for most recipes in works. Next time I shall try thin it out with milk
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Great tips,
I use lemon and milk or cream of tarter. You need something acidic to coagulate and ferment the milk which makes it more viscous than milk.
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yogurt is my favorite buttermilk substitute and yet yours is the first blog I’ve seen it suggested on! i nearly always have nonfat yogurt in the house and will substitute an equal amount of it for the buttermilk without adding any milk. because nonfat yogurt is thinner than the regular or greek varieties, i haven’t had any texture issues with this method.
i also often use nonfat vanilla yogurt rather than plain for baking – yum!
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Wow what great tips since I never have buttermilk when I need it!
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I hadn’t heard of a couple of those methods, so “thanks!”. I do try to be prepared for recipes calling for buttermilk, as I always think it works best, too. Especially for my favorite scones. I’ve tried the lemon juice/milk substitute and my dough was a sloppy mess for trying to cut into scone shapes. Most other kinds of recipes, though, the substituting works great.
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I can’t remember whose blog I got the tip from, but whenever I need a buttermilk substitute, I use half yogurt/half milk!
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thanks for sharing buttermilk substitutes! I only needed a 1/4 cup of buttermilk for a recipe recently, and had to buy quart. Such a waste. Now I’m trying to find recipes to use up all the buttermilk
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Nice to know ways to come up with buttermilk! It never fails that on a Saturday morning my kids want buttermilk pancakes and nobody wants to go to the store to get the buttermilk…. your tips will come in handy!
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I use milk that has soured. Most people think that sour milk has gone “bad” but it won’t make you sick and it is the original milk that buttermilk replaced. BTW I use lightly pasteurized/homogenized milk. It goes sour in about a week. I would never use ultra-pasteurized, highly processed milk that seemed like it had turned. Who knows what kind of bacteria will make it go south!
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Wow, great post for home made basics. Buttermilk is rare at shops, but deffenitely give s a favour to cakes! Thanks
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This are such great tips for cost saving!!
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What sort of milk, whole, 2% or 1% or fat-free? Thank you, from Grammajean
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Katie replied: — June 20th, 2011 @ 8:55 AM
I usually have 1% or 2% in the house, but any should work fine.
I love using buttermilk in my baking and I don’t always have it on hand and wasn’t sure how to make it. Thanks for the buttermilk recipes substitutes. I will give them a try.
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what type of milk ? fresh milk,low fat or full cream?
please help me
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Katie replied: — November 20th, 2011 @ 2:03 PM
I use either low fat or whole milk. I never buy skim, so I haven’t tried that.
just a side note … if you prefer to use real buttermilk, but never seem to use it all, you can freeze the left overs for future use … in order to eliminate waste, you can freeze it in 1/4 cup servings.
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Marne replied: — March 1st, 2012 @ 7:20 AM
I freeze buttermilk all the time! Don’t waste it. I freeze it in one cup increments if I won’t be using it before it goes bad. Works great!
Awesome! thanks for posting, you are a life saver! .. butter milk is not available where I am.. even if it is I wouldn’t know how to translate it for the shopkeeper!! Yogurt and milk substitute seems good for my red velvet cupcakes no ?
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Hey, just so you know, buttermilk is easier than most things to make! All you do is stir about a 1/4 cup cultured buttermilk (from the store or previous batch) into a half gallon whole or raw milk (not ultra-pasturized). That’s all! Let the jar(s) sit on the counter about 24 hours, and don’t let it get above 80 degrees. Then you have buttemilk! I do this every month and have it always on hand.
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Glad I found this – I have only tried a sub once and it was vinegar – I am not saying it didn’t work but I could smell vinegar in the mini donuts I made – I fed them to the outside cats as I couldn’t eat a donut that smelled like vinegar, off to try the cream of tartar!
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I keep powder butter milk on hand. I get buy it in bulk and thus have it when needed.
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The cans of unopened powdered buttermilk keep indefinitely. I called the maker to find out.
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Very Clever
I always substitute buttermilk with Low fat plain Yogurt mixed with some water to lighten it up
it works perfectly… and makes my recipes somehow lighter
Very helpful information though…
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Can you make it using lactaid milk?
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Katie replied: — November 8th, 2012 @ 10:17 PM
I have never tried that and do not know.
Katie, Thanks for the ideas. I think I will use vanilla yogurt and “leftover” coconut milk for the Chocolate Muffins I am going to make. Actually, I would have bought buttermilk, but did not get to read the comments before going to the store to find out that one can freeze buttermilk! Or maybe I could use a cup of the eggnog my husband bought?
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I usually marinate boneless, skinless chicken in seasoned buttermilk(vinegar/milk method) 24-48 hours before frying. Think I’ll try using some quality seasoned coconut milk for my next batch of fried chicken. Thx for the ideas.
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great tips for me, who always hardly find buttermilk ,thanks katie :d
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Thanks I too use yogurt a great deal but like to use what the recipe calls for most times..I am sharing this on my blog and noted where it came from..:)
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can you use this with buttermilk chicken
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Katie replied: — May 3rd, 2013 @ 6:55 PM
Hi Eleanor, I haven’t tried that because I don’t make buttermilk chicken very often.