BUTTERMILK

Since a couple of years, we've got back "real buttermilk" again = the buttermilk from the buttering progress. (I remember that in my childhood and youth still small pieces of butter were in it.)
I do like it when it's hot weather.

1 Reply

@Walter Hinteler,

Quote:

Since a couple of years, we've got back "real buttermilk" again = the buttermilk from the buttering progress.

lucky. I have yet to see it. Whole Foods maybe?

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

You get it in every supermarket, (nearly) all dairies sell it.

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@Walter Hinteler,

Quote:

In my opinion, buttermilk from sweet-cream butter is one of the world’s most boring substances. It’s not bad exactly, it’s just bland to a fare-thee-well. … When you churn thoroughly cultured whole milk (unhomogenized) or light cream, you get buttermilk both better-textured and better-tasting than anything from heavy cream, because it contains more of the original casein from the milk and has a certain appealing “cheesiness.”

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/09/12/new_york_times_buttermilk_article_why_it_s_impossible_to_generalize_about_real_buttermilk_.html

I am thinking that this buttermilk that the really old folks remember was the liquid off of cultured butter made from light cream. I never have been able to nail it down, or taste anything but the cultured skim milk and the liquid off of butter made from pasteurized uncultured cream.

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@hawkeye10,

Most of our butter is sour cream butter.

1 Reply

@Walter Hinteler,

Walter Hinteler wrote:

Most of our butter is sour cream butter.

And it is darn good. Most of ours is sweet cream butter, great for pastry and that is about it. Boomer had a butter thread a year or so ago, we tried to pin down why our butter is now no flavor crap. My current theory is that butter used to be cultured, a part of the last batch was added to the current batch and it was allowed to sit warm for a bit, and that health codes make this too expensive to do now because lots of tests need to be run on each batch. This is something like my 6th theory.

Other possibilities

That today the cows eat grain not grass
the breed of cows used has changed a lot
milk is now refrigerated with in minutes of leaving the cow
the pasteurization process has changed
maybe butter is now made from higher fat content cream (because buttermilk is nearly worthless maybe they make sure they wring out the non fat parts of the milk before they churn)
Maybe the churn is done at a colder temp (health codes again)
Cows used to spend time outside, now they usually dont

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@hawkeye10,

Another theory is that the government demands that Grade A butter be very low flavor butter, and nobody wants to try to sell butter without grade A on the package.

Still another one is that the butter is now milk/cream is flash chilled after pasteurizing.

1 Reply

@Walter Hinteler,

we get the product from a series of dairies in the PA Dutch country who have aeaw milk licenses. Their buttermilk is more flavordul than that from supermarkets and supermarkets cant sell this because of the price point.

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When I was on holiday in Texas I bought some cook books. There is a recipe for a buttermilk nutmeg tart. I modified it using about a quarter of the sugar and using lemons instead of nutmeg and it's bloody gorgeous. I've also made it with strawberries and vanilla. Never drunk the stuff though, and it's not exactly widespread over here. This is the only buttermilk my supermarket sells, but there's a wide variety of milks, creams, yoghurts and other dairy products.

http://images3.mysupermarket.co.uk/ProductsDetailed/38/005238.jpg?v=6

3 Replies

@izzythepush,

The buttermilk from the RAW milk dairy is a deeper color than that sold by the big boys.Im not especially fond of sour milk butter ( we have to pay quite a bit more for this). Its ok for croissants or buns and stuff like cornbread, BUT, for using in soups or sauces or as a dip for seafood, I still like sweet cream butter(even for clams which are salty enough by themselves). Different things for different uses.

Sometimes only the sweet cream flavor will do (like on sweet corn a "gourmet" butter really messes with the corn flavor, In my mind, it does not enhance the corn flavor, it imparts a "cheesy" taste).

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@izzythepush,

In our local 'supermarket' here in the village, we get "pure buttermilk" (= real one, not the cultured buttermilk) from three big diaries plus one no-label and one organic. (Looked it up this morning)

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

the government demands that Grade A butter be very low flavor butter

thats more an assertion than a "theory")
old fashioned butters have a cheesy flavor that is ok for a limited number of foods.
Unsalted sweet cream butters are still the best for seafoods and salted sweet cream butters are best for stuff like sweet corn or pod peas). You cant use a "one size fits all" selection for butters.
Youre just reacting to "gourmet marketing" hype.
A few months ago the NYT did an article about "old fashioned butters and buttermilk" and the run on these products at our local Dutch Dairy was astounding.People are like cattle when it comes to reacting to food writers.

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@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

When I was on holiday in Texas I bought some cook books. There is a recipe for a buttermilk nutmeg tart. I modified it using about a quarter of the sugar and using lemons instead of nutmeg and it's bloody gorgeous. I've also made it with strawberries and vanilla.

Sounds yummy.

What's the recipe?

1 Reply

@chai2,

It's from a book called Tastes and Tales of Texas edited by Peg Hein. It's called the Nutt House Buttermilk pie. This is a link to the unmodified recipe that I've modified, way too sweet for my tastes. I never used lemon flavouring either, just real lemon juice and zest.

http://www.cooks.com/recipe/xl6el1dj/famous-nutt-house-buttermilk-pie.html

2 Replies

@izzythepush,

Thats the whole point of many of thse "butter tarts" and sugar pies, they almost make your teeth hurt . The Canadians have a version that we used to buy in backwoods stores.

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@farmerman,

Im sort of half watching this program on the origin of cold-cuts. It seems that the oldest baloney is Salami, (it originated from Salamis in 700 bC).

It was casing packed chunks of salted and spiced met that was then dried in open air "festoon dinguses'

I wonder what THAT tasted like. PErhaps a salami sammich with a nice glass of buttermilk.

1 Reply

@farmerman,

Salami and buttermilk?

Sounds like the wurst combination ever.

I know how you love a pun.

2 Replies

@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

It's from a book called Tastes and Tales of Texas edited by Peg Hein. It's called the Nutt House Buttermilk pie. This is a link to the unmodified recipe that I've modified, way too sweet for my tastes. I never used lemon flavouring either, just real lemon juice and zest.

http://www.cooks.com/recipe/xl6el1dj/famous-nutt-house-buttermilk-pie.html

Thanks, I'm going to try this.

2 cups sugar? Yikes. That's way too much. I don't think I use 2 cups of added sugar over the course of a year. I'd use real lemon and zest too.

As Wally says "It doesn't cost that much more to go first class" Smile

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@Lordyaswas,

I will forego the opportunity to deliver my annual speech to the graduating class regarding puns and their negative effects on our culture.

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@Lordyaswas,

Lamb sausages for instances, taste excellent with buttermilk. (Marinaded in it.)

I marinade (veal) liver and all game in buttermilk, too.

0 Replies

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