DIY Buttermilk

swain90 · 28 Jun 2017 at 15:57

Hi All,

I've been looking at some rather delicious (yet incredibly unhealthy) recipes for doing some southern fried chicken.

The majority of the recipes state that you need buttermilk. I've had a look on Asda and Tesco to see what they offer and to buy a bottle of buttermilk isn't that cheap and I'm not sure all stores will stock it.

I've had a look online and there's a few people suggesting using full fat/whole milk and lemon juice, I was wondering if anyone had used this method before and how did it turn out?

Cheers

Swain90

krooton · 28 Jun 2017 at 16:18

I have used it a few times when baking, and it turned out fine.

FrenchTart · 28 Jun 2017 at 16:25

I'm not convinced you do need buttermilk for fried chicken. If anything, substitutes are going to be even less discernibly different in that than in a baking context.

iamthenugget · 28 Jun 2017 at 17:09

what recipe are you using if you dont mind me asking

Glaucus · 28 Jun 2017 at 18:49

it adds a bit of a sour note, hence the suggested substitute.

As others have said just ignore it and use what you want or use the substitute.

swain90 · 29 Jun 2017 at 07:15

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/220128/chef-johns-buttermilk-fried-chicken/

That is what I was going for.

iamthenugget · 29 Jun 2017 at 07:32

swain90 said:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/220128/chef-johns-buttermilk-fried-chicken/

That is what I was going for.

thnx for the link. they look and sound amazing. thats added to my to do list for this weekend

swain90 · 29 Jun 2017 at 07:47

Just to confirm should the whole milk and lemon suffice then?

Putty · 29 Jun 2017 at 08:28

That should do it - vinegar instead of lemon juice also works.

jpaul · 29 Jun 2017 at 09:59

buttermilk is not so expensive 50p 300ml - i use it in American pancakes - but for fried chicken, the thicker consistency of
genuine buttermilk or yoghurt is going to help more coating stick ? (in addition to its acid tenderising the meat)

iamthenugget · 29 Jun 2017 at 10:01

jpaul said:
buttermilk is not so expensive 50p 300ml - i use it in American pancakes - but for fried chicken, the thicker consistency of
genuine buttermilk or yoghurt is going to help more coating stick ? (in addition to its acid tenderising the meat)

where in the supermarket would u pick it up at?? the fresh dairy section or the home cooking/world sauce section.

its something ive never bought before

jpaul · 29 Jun 2017 at 11:37

It is dairy - (reading label) St Ives cultured buttermilk - near cream for Waitrose+JS

iamthenugget · 29 Jun 2017 at 17:54

i dont shop in waitrose but will check near the cream in tesco or asda. its something i could never found and always looked or alternatives

oli collett · 29 Jun 2017 at 19:17

In fried chicken doing this might not be too bad, but in baking it's really not such a good idea:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2017/04/how-to-substitute-buttermilk.html

If you really want to do DIY buttermilk because you can't find any, you can make it by separating cream. Get loads of double cream, stick it in a blender for a while, eventually it'll separate and you can pour off the buttermilk and wash out the remaining butter

iamthenugget · 29 Jun 2017 at 19:41

oli collett said:
In fried chicken doing this might not be too bad, but in baking it's really not such a good idea:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2017/04/how-to-substitute-buttermilk.html

If you really want to do DIY buttermilk because you can't find any, you can make it by separating cream. Get loads of double cream, stick it in a blender for a while, eventually it'll separate and you can pour off the buttermilk and wash out the remaining butter

ah nice little tip there. thank you very much for that

jpaul · 29 Jun 2017 at 20:53

oli collett said:
but in baking it's really not such a good idea

in baking the buttermilk (acid) is generally used in conjunction with bicarbonate of soda (alkali) for rising purposes,diy buttermilk with lemon will also leave a taste for baking

double cream is 70/80p for 300ml so much more expensive than buttermilk , don't know what the buttermilk yield is ? - hopefully the solid part is useable (... a diy clotted cream ?)

FrenchTart · 29 Jun 2017 at 22:29

Solid part in the above process is butter so it's totally usable.

Spuj · 30 Jun 2017 at 08:40

Sainsbury's sell buttermilk that is pretty well priced, used it for a few different recipes and they've turned out fine using it. It's 75p for 300ml and is usually in the aisle with all the single/double creams etc.

krooton · 30 Jun 2017 at 09:09

oli collett said:
In fried chicken doing this might not be too bad, but in baking it's really not such a good idea:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2017/04/how-to-substitute-buttermilk.html

Fair enough, but I have used it a few times when making muffins, and the milk+lemon juice worked fine.

Probably helped that the muffin flavours (apple & cinnamon, and blueberry) didn't get skewed by a tiny bit of lemoniness.

swain90 · 4 Jul 2017 at 07:17

For anyone that's interested, I managed to find some buttermilk in Tesco. Was 50p for about 250/275ml so wasn't expensive!

The chicken turned out OK. I didn't get enough oil so the chicken ended up sticking to the bottom of the pan while I was sorting something out so it was a little burnt, so if I was to do it again i'd probably get more oil and also probably do chicken strips as doing an entire chicken breast takes a while to cook. But the actual recipe tasted guuuuuuuurd!