Believe it: Upscale cookie recipe is free

[snopes]

Neiman Marcus might be known for lavish, upscale merchandise, but, it turns out, there's no charge for urban legends.

http://www.mercurynews.com/food/ci_6514396

[tagurit]

I found the information just below the Neiman Marcus article, regarding powdered buttermilk, very interesting. Everytime I have a recipe calling for buttermilk, some buttermilk gets thrown out. Powdered buttermilk? Who knew?

Thanks, snopes!

[guruwan2b]

But you can make milk into a buttermilk substitute by adding lemon or vinegar... Actually buy buttermilk?? Apologies to buttermilk lovers, but yuck!

[tagurit]

Yeah? but isn't that just curdled milk, not really buttermilk? I confess to not knowing much about buttermilk. If I buy it, I tend to try to buy just enough for my recipe, but ultimately some gets dumped.

I would never just drink the stuff.

[guruwan2b]

Hmm, I was just looking up buttermilk substitute and found out I was supposed to warm the milk before putting in the vinegar or lemon juice. I also saw where you could use yogart or sour cream in the place of buttermilk in recipes.... Who da thunk it?

[tagurit]

That's why this site is so great. You never learn just one thing. Thanks, guruwan2b.

[lynnejanet]

Because of family dietary restrictions, I always use goat's yogurt, or very watered-down unripened goat's cheese in place of buttermilk, with great results.

If I have a recipe that calls for sour milk, I use vinegar to turn it, but I've never tried substituting it for buttermilk, because buttermilk is so much thicker (and has more fat).

[guruwan2b]

One page I saw said if you warm the milk before adding the lemon/vinegar it will thicken just like buttermilk.

[We'veBeenHad]

I have a printout of a very early email (maybe 97, maybe before, I'd have to look) with the story, told in the first person, and an awesome recipe for chocolate chip cookies on the bottom. Some of the best I've made. They use grated hershey bars, quaker oats ground to powder, and lots of stuff. Nice chewy cookies with a lot of chocolate. Makes about 112 cookies. Not the same recipe, though; I'll have to try this one now.

Until I saw mention of it here, I believed the story Hey, it's kind of a cool story regardless.

Maybe its a Minnesota thing, but my mom has always used powdered buttermilk. If a recipe calls for a certain amount of buttermilk, you just reconstitute the powder with either milk or water (I can't remember which it is) according to the package directions. Also, there are some recipes that call for the powder to be added straight from the can, no reconstitution required.

I guess I thought everyone knew about powdered buttermilk like they knew about powdered milk. Interesting.

(by the way, I have never tasted any difference between the real stuff or the powdered stuff)

[snapdragonfly]

Originally Posted by lynnejanet

Because of family dietary restrictions, I always use goat's yogurt, or very watered-down unripened goat's cheese in place of buttermilk, with great results.

If I have a recipe that calls for sour milk, I use vinegar to turn it, but I've never tried substituting it for buttermilk, because buttermilk is so much thicker (and has more fat).

I use lowfat buttermilk. So I assume it would not have more fat.

I think it is delicious though - I like to drink it. I don't know why I think it's so good, but I do.

If I have any leftover from recipes that I'm not in the mood to drink, I give it to my chickens - they go NUTS for it. They simply adore buttermilk and peck the pan dry in seconds.

[We'veBeenHad]

Why isn't real buttermilk available anymore? Or is it? You know, what's left over after they make butter (you'd think there is plenty of that.) I know they loved it in the Little House books. I'd be willing to give that a try.

[rogue74656]

Originally Posted by We'veBeenHad

Why isn't real buttermilk available anymore? Or is it? You know, what's left over after they make butter (you'd think there is plenty of that.) I know they loved it in the Little House books. I'd be willing to give that a try.

Butter is mostly fat.
Buttermik is the liquid left after the butterfat is gone.
Shouldn't buttermilk have LESS fat than regular milk?

-Rogue

[Lady Neeva]

Real buttermilk (as in the liquid left after churning butter) is mostly used to make livestock feed nowdays apparently. Commercial buttermilk is essentially very thin yogurt as far as texture and flavor go. Nothing like real buttermilk.

[We'veBeenHad]

Rogue, I would think it has very little fat at all.

LadyNeeva, that's a shame, because the real thing might be very good. Or maybe it's just like skim milk, I don't know. Guess I won't be finding out anytime soon

[Latiam]

Well it looks just the same...
If you're really interested in how it tastes, get whipping cream, put it in a jar with a VERY TIGHT MOUTHED LID, shake it until it's whipped and then some, and eventually you make butter. You'd be able to taste the buttermilk when you were all done.
You do have to kind of squeeze some of the buttermilk out of the butter. I've done it at school to teach kids about emulsions.

[Sunny Lea]

Originally Posted by Latiam

Well it looks just the same...
If you're really interested in how it tastes, get whipping cream, put it in a jar with a VERY TIGHT MOUTHED LID, shake it until it's whipped and then some, and eventually you make butter. You'd be able to taste the buttermilk when you were all done.
You do have to kind of squeeze some of the buttermilk out of the butter. I've done it at school to teach kids about emulsions.

That's what I was going to suggest

We had a "Little House on the Prairie Party" a couple of months ago and the kids had an absolute blast doing this. (I work in a children's department at a library.) And the butter was really, really, good. I didn't think to try the buttermilk, though.