Buttermilk

[therese]

In your response to one of the cornbread queries you mention that you use buttermilk in yours. I do too ('cause my granny taught me how), and wonder if you've ever gone to the trouble of making the real thing, i.e. the liquid left after you've churned butter from clabbered (soured) cream, instead of making do with the cultured skim milk sold at the grocer's?

[souljoy]

Hi Therese,

I grew up on the type of buttermilk you are talking about. I have vivid memories of my mother sitting and churning milk; sweet butter and delicious, tangy, watery buttermilk as the reward.

Today when I want to make cornbread and there is no buttermilk in the fridge, in a pinch I will add a little vinegar to whole milk, set the bowl in a warm place, and let it clabber. That's about as far as I go.

But I am lucky enough to live close to a health food supermarket that sells a good quality cultured buttermilk. However, I yearn for yesteryear's flavor. I envision a new project in the making here.

[therese]

So maybe a commercial enterprise could start marketing it. There's one out there that's presumably already producing it, and also has a distribution network in place: Vermont Cultured Butter (disclaimer: I am in no way associated with this company, though I do buy the butter).

Buttermilk made the old-fashioned way would actually be pretty low fat (the fat having been removed as butter).