How to Make Buttermilk from Milk

From time to time, you will surely crave buttermilk pancakes, but don’t have buttermilk in the fridge. So what to do when you just need a cup of buttermilk and don’t want to buy a liter? In fact, you can make buttermilk easily from plain milk and an acidic ingredient like lemon juice and white vinegar. Come on, let’s get to work!

Table of Contents

Ingredient

1 cup (240ml) whole milk or 2% milk
1 tablespoon (15ml) lemon juice or white vinegar
1.75 teaspoons cream of tartar (optional)
0.75 cups (180ml) yogurt, sour cream or kefir (optional)

Adding acidic ingredients to regular milk

Pour 1 tablespoon of acidic liquid ingredients into 1 cup of milk. White vinegar and lemon juice are both familiar and very effective acidic liquid ingredients. Pour the milk into a measuring cup, then measure out the lemon juice or white vinegar and add it to the milk. ^{[1] X Research Source}

You can use whole milk or 2% milk. Skim milk has too little fat to coagulate properly.
Many people like to use lemon juice to freeze milk, but white vinegar is also very effective. The lemon juice blends gently with the milk’s fatness perfectly but still brings out the aroma.
Increase the amount of ingredients in the recipe if needed. For example, add 2 tablespoons of an acidic ingredient to 2 cups of milk if you need to make 2 cups of buttermilk.

Stir the mixture and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes. You just need to stir quickly with a measuring spoon. In about 5-10 minutes, the milk will start to coagulate. Small crumbs will gradually form from the addition of lemon juice or vinegar. ^{[2] X Research Source}

The mixture will gradually thicken although not as thick as standard buttermilk, but when added to recipes it is still effective.

Stir 1.75 teaspoons cream of tartar into 1 cup (240ml) of milk. Similar to lemon juice or white vinegar, you will leave the stirred mixture for about 5-10 minutes. The mixture will thicken and solidify during this time. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

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Use “homemade” buttermilk the same way you would a standard buttermilk. You just add the mixture and the frozen portion in the required amount as indicated in the recipe. No one will notice the difference between these two types of buttermilk. ^{[4] X Research Source} Try some of the following recipes using buttermilk:

Pancakes
Cookies
Fried chicken
Sauce for salads
Scones

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Learn how to make standard buttermilk if you’re interested in the process. Standard buttermilk is a by-product of the buttercream making process. A probiotic is added to the cream to separate the milk fat from the excess water that is standard buttermilk. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

Therefore, by learning how to make standard buttermilk, you will also know how to make pure butter!

Substitute with yogurt or sour cream

Stir 0.75 cups (180ml) plain yogurt with 0.25 cups (60ml) water. Stir the two ingredients together for a thick, aromatic liquid with a buttermilk-like texture and flavor. ^{[6] X Research Sources}

You can use whole milk or 2% milk in place of water for a thicker texture, especially when you’re using skim yogurt.
If you’re using a thickener like Greek yogurt, you’ll need to add a little more liquid to get the texture you want.

Try combining sour cream and water in a ratio of 3:1. If plain yogurt isn’t available, mix 0.75 cups of sour cream with 0.25 cups of water. Stir until the mixture has a buttermilk-like texture. ^{[7] X Research Sources}

Similar to yogurt, you can use milk instead of water for a thicker consistency, especially with low-fat sour cream.

Combine kefir with water in a ratio of 3:1. Kefir is just as effective as yogurt or sour cream. However, the finished product is slightly different, so you’ll need about 0.25 cups (60ml) of water with 0.75 cups (180ml) of kefir to create the buttermilk texture. You just add a little water first, stir well, and add more water to dilute the mixture if needed. ^{[8] X Research Sources}

Again, you can use milk instead of water if you want.

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Try incorporating skim yogurt, sour cream, or kefir into your recipes. While this substitute doesn’t create the true flavor or blend perfectly like standard buttermilk, it can be used quickly and makes a great addition to a recipe. Try and compare the effect with vinegar or lemon juice and milk.

Taste the flavors by making 3 batches of buttermilk pancakes – one with standard buttermilk, one with vinegar/lemonade/cream of tartar and milk, the other with sour cream/yogurt/kefir and water. Then you’ll invite some friends to taste the cake!

Advice

Commercially available buttermilk is usually just skim milk with probiotics, or sour fermented milk. If you’ve never tried standard buttermilk, you should give it a try! Many people think this buttermilk tastes better than the commercially available ones.

Things you need

Measuring cup
Measuring spoon
Spoon for stirring (optional)
Small bowl for stirring (optional)

Ingredient

Steps

Adding acidic ingredients to regular milk

Substitute with yogurt or sour cream

Advice

Things you need

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