# Cultured Buttermilk



## netskyblue (Jul 25, 2012)

I'm about to churn a batch of butter in a day or two, and I'd like to culture the buttermilk I get from it. I use cultured buttermilk for baking, but rarely use sweet cream buttermilk. Iâm going to have to buy some cultured anyway for the recipe Iâm going to be making, so Iâm wondering â how can I use the store-bought* cultured buttermilk to culture my own? Is it just like making sour cream, a couple of ounces of the store-bought in a pint jar filled up with my buttermilk for about 2 days at room temp? Should I heat & hold my buttermilk at 180 for 20 mins first? I can't guarantee the sterility of my kitchen aid mixer bowl.

And can I freeze it in pre-measured amounts, and use it thawed for baking just like it was new? I feel like I waste a whole lot, since I use about a cup at a time, and end up throwing out the other half pint.

* I do have a good organic brand for store-bought, with no added thickeners or other junk.


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## FairviewFarm (Sep 16, 2003)

This is the method I use: Buttermilk

Toward the bottom of the page he writes about the difference between old-fashioned buttermilk and today's cultured product.

I'll be checking back because I'd like to know how well it freezes too.


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## netskyblue (Jul 25, 2012)

Wow, I had no idea today's buttermilk wasn't buttermilk at all! Why don't they just call it "cultured milk"?

And I wonder what happens, then, if you try to culture "real" buttermilk?


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## FairviewFarm (Sep 16, 2003)

Wish I could tell you that you can "culture" real buttermilk. It should work because essentially you're left with skim milk after removing the cream when making butter. Would probably be less rich as Mr. Frankhauser says on his buttermilk page.

Along similar lines, I wonder how they can use "cream" in the names of other dairy products if they don't contain cream such as non-fat sour cream and non-fat cream cheese. How can you have sour cream or cream cheese without cream? I prefer to think of those as cultured non-fat dairy products. IMHO, non-fat sour cream and non-fat cream cheese are the ultimate oxymorons.


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## peteyfoozer (Nov 23, 2012)

I always use a buttermilk to culture my heavy cream BEFORE I churn my butter. Then the resulting buttermilk is already cultured and is very thick and nice. I do start out with live culture buttermilk from the store, then I make a 'mother culture' I can use and propagate for the rest of the year.
To make a mother culture, sterilize a jar, fill most of the way with milk, put in pan with water up to the milk line. Simmer for 30 min. This kills anything in the milk so you are starting with a sterile medium. THen put about 2 TBL buttermilk per cup of milk in the jar once it is cool (about 8 hours later) cap it, and after about 24 hr put it in the fridge. Each time you open a mother culture, make a new one so your culture isn't contaminated. I only renew them about once a month. You can keep this going indefinitely with buttermilk and clabber. With yogurt the culture tends to weaken after awhile and needs to be restarted.


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## momofseven (Oct 10, 2008)

I also culture my cream before ,making butter, sometimes with yogurt, clabber or a mesophilic culture. When I pour off the buttermilk I let it stand at room temp for 18-24 hours. It's pleasantly tangy and thick.


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## goateeman (Jan 3, 2013)

peteyfoozer and momofseven----why do you guys culture your cream before making butter? does it may the butter better or last longer or what?


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## peteyfoozer (Nov 23, 2012)

I don't know if it lasts longer as I freeze all my extra anyway, but I do get a better yield, better flavor, it breaks faster and the resulting buttermilk is thick like from the store and is awesome in baked goods


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