What is the difference between buttermilk and milk?

Buttermilk is a cultured milk, which has been essentially soured or curdled. The nutrition of buttermilk is comparable to skimmed milk except it has a tangy flavor.

Milk is a white liquid food, which is produced by the mammary glands of mammals. Before they can digest solid food, it is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals.

According to the USDA estimates, 90% of US citizens do not get adequate dairy daily. One can give buttermilk a taste for a unique and healthy way to add dairy to your diet.

Alongside whey, buttermilk is a top byproduct of the dairy industry. It is the liquid byproduct or waste that is created or left behind when cream is churned into butter.

There are a number of different kinds of buttermilk — sweet buttermilk, cultured buttermilk, and whey buttermilk.

Sweet buttermilk is essentially made from churning sweet cream.

Meanwhile, cultured buttermilk is made by fermenting sweet buttermilk with a specific bacteria. The fermentation turns the flavor of milk, making it taste tart, tangy, and sour. Some of the bacteria in the fermentation process add probiotic qualities to the milk.

Finally,  whey buttermilk is made when whey protein is churned. It is less common than the other varieties, but it shows that buttermilk can be created in the process of churning most dairy products.

How to make buttermilk in 10 minutes?

This is the method to use when one needs buttermilk immediately. What you’ll need to do is take whole or 2% milk and fresh lemon juice or white distilled vinegar.

Buttermilk brings the tart flavor and acidic makeup to recipes in cooking which is more important in baking when one is using baking soda as a leavener, which needs acid to activate it.

Here, one is making an acidic dairy mixture. Although it is not cultured buttermilk, it would work just like buttermilk in recipes.

First of all, prepare your milk. Add 1 cup of whole or 2% milk into a measuring cup. For vegan buttermilk, you can use a vegan alternative of your choice.

Step two: Pour in an acid. For every cup of milk, add and stir one tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar.

Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes and it would be ready to use once the acid curdles the milk slightly.

One can scale up the recipe or down, depending on how much buttermilk one needs for cooking or baking.