Aug 20, 2006

Homemade Buttermilk and Sour Cream

I was just surfing around on one of my favorite websites, Laine's Letters, that features lots of tried and true home-style recipes. I found one today that I hadn't seen before and can't wait to try it.

Homemade Buttermilk

1/4 cup of buttermilk
4 cups of milk

Pour into a mason jar. Cover and shake a little, then put on the counter. In about 24 hours, you have buttermilk. Remember to save a little buttermilk from each batch for the next batch.

Homemade Sour Cream

Make the same as buttermilk, only you use heavy cream in place of the milk.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

For buttermilk, I just add 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice or vinegar to one cup milk. My cakes come out all right.

Michele said...

Velvet, I do the same thing but just thought this idea sounded great for a large quantity and I also love the sour cream idea! :)

Cyndi said...

You mean all I have to do is take a little heavy cream, mix it with some milk, let it stand on the counter for 24 hours and I'll have some sour cream? No refrigeration? I'm thinking about halving the amounts; don't need 4 cups of sour cream! Have you tried it yet? Let us know how it works!

Michele said...

Cyndi, this is from one of the most tried and true sites I've found so I can't wait to try it (promise I will post results!). Not sure how cost effective it will be to make but I will try anyhow. I think I will do one in the refrigerator and one out and post what happens ;)

Erika W. said...

I just wanted to say thanks for sharing that website. :-) I've been spending a lot of time there reading Laine's Letters... wow... such an encouragement! So, thanks!

Anonymous said...

The homemade buttermilk and sour cream are great i expected quite a long recipe not as simple as this so thanks a lot.

Ernest Kent said...

Thanks for the recipe. I'm going to try it and see how well it works for me. When you get time please stop by my site and tell me what you think

Anonymous said...

If you are interested in true butter milk make the butter first. I use heavy cream in my Kitchen Aid turn it on and let it run until it starts to yellow. Once the cream starts to yellow you may add salt, honey or garlic and garlic salt to taste depending on the type of butter you enjoy. Continue to mix until the butter separates from the whey. Make sure to place a towel over the mixer because once it turns to butter the whey will splash up. Once you have removed the butter from the whey add cream of tartar, vinegar or lemon juice to the whey and you have true butter milk. If you don't get all of the tiny pieces of butter out it's perfect! Hence the name butter milk. Whole milk was originally not used to make butter milk but, is commonly used today.

Michele said...

cjaysbiz, thanks for the tip!

Anonymous said...

to make butermilk, yogurt, ratio is 8:1, 8 parts of milk,1 part of starter(store butermilk,yogurt), combine cold milk and starter,set in DARK place 24-25 C* I prefer gas oven with pilot lite only,(the oven is actualy off).20-24 hours.Remove,shake,put in refrigerator.Yogurt (cafir) get thicker after 2-5 days in the refrigerator.

Anonymous said...

This sounds like a great way to make sour cream but do you know if it works as well if you make buttermilk by using milk and vinegar? I live in a country that doesn't have buttermilk.
thanks.

Archana said...

hi, this is common in India as this is how we make curd and buttermilk at home daily. we heat the raw milk as this is how we get milk and not pasteurized. Cool down the milk and pour a drop of curd or buttermilk (say a tea spoonful)and your yummy curd is ready is max 10 hrs. to make it a fluid buttermilk pour some water onto it, add a pinch of salt, shake it and drink it. It is a very good diet supplement, fat free, healthy, and will give you cooling effect.

Colisa said...

This sounds really cool...
one question though.

you say "Homemade Sour Cream
Make the same as buttermilk, only you use heavy cream in place of the milk."

are you saying to use: buttermilk + heavy cream, milk + heavy cream, or sour cream + heavy cream ?

Michele said...

Hi Colisa,

You use heavy creak and buttermilk for sour cream, no regular milk so the recipe would be ...

Homemade Buttermilk

1/4 cup of buttermilk
4 cups of heavy cream

Pour into a mason jar. Cover and shake a little, then put on the counter. In about 24 hours, you have sour cream.

dave_b_quick said...

I put 1/4 cup of commercial buttermilk in a gallon of milk (mixture of 1% and 2%) and left it on the counter, checking it occasionally to see when it would get thick. After 12 hours it was thick enough it would barely pour, so i put it in the fridge to stop the fermentation process. It is quite tasty as is, sweetened or un-sweetened. The first cup I drank straight, and later I tried to make "kumis" by sweetening it with sugar and sprinkling cinnamon on top (yum). I'm going to make a big batch of buttermilk cornbread later, and a buttermilk smoothie. I think the temperature makes a big difference in how long it takes to work. Yesterday was about 76° in my kitchen.