By Cody is on day six hundred and sixty-two. Eight days remaining. Mama drives Aunt Tammy to the unit Monday morning November twelfth at seven. Aunt Tammy drives Cody back. The expected arrival home is around eleven in the morning. The household is going to have a person back in it for the first time in twenty-two months.
I am making homecoming biscuits next Tuesday. Real buttermilk biscuits. The recipe needs real buttermilk, which we do not buy — a quart of buttermilk at Walmart is $2.49 and we use it once. So this Saturday I made the substitute that has been in the back of every cookbook for fifty years and that I had never used: whole milk plus white vinegar.
The math: a tablespoon of vinegar plus enough whole milk to make one cup, rest five minutes on the counter. The milk thickens and curdles slightly. The result behaves the same as real buttermilk in a recipe.
I tested it Saturday morning in a small batch of biscuits. The biscuits were tall and tender and exactly the way buttermilk biscuits are supposed to be. I am ready for Tuesday.
The recipe is below. The trick is the rest — the curdle takes five minutes.
How to Make Buttermilk
Prep Time: 2 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 12 minutes (including rest) | Servings: 1 cup
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole milk (or 2% milk)
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar or fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Measure the acid. Pour 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice into a liquid measuring cup or small bowl.
- Add the milk. Pour in enough milk to reach the 1-cup line. Stir gently to combine.
- Let it rest. Set the mixture aside at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes. You’ll see it begin to curdle slightly and thicken — that’s exactly what you want.
- Use immediately. Give it a quick stir and use it as a 1:1 substitute for buttermilk in any baking recipe — pancakes, biscuits, cakes, quick breads, or marinades.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 150 | Protein: 8g | Fat: 8g | Carbs: 12g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 105mg