Bettermilk

You may know I'm wild about buttermilk. I have a favorite brand, available in the Bay Area. Always have a bottle of it in the fridge, for drinking or cooking. (The other day we soaked a cut-up chicken in buttermilk overnight, for the most tender fried chicken ever.)

Cranky knows where to buy the stuff, and every week or so, he makes the slightly arduous trek and loads up... Never more than one carton at a time.

Well.

During my absence from blogging, I had the opportunity to go back and read several of my old posts, to see whether this endeavor is worth it or not. I decided I rather liked some of what I had written, and therefore, here I am again.

I read an old post about my love affair with buttermilk, and in the comments, a good, lovely blog pal of mine suggested I could make my own buttermilk at home. She is a dedicated homestead farmer, and pretty much feeds her family on what she grows and raises. She knows whereof she speaks.

And I forgot to take her advice.

Until I reread that comment, and suddenly I was all "Get me a quart of whole milk!"

Here's how it goes. Open the new carton of milk. Spoon in a couple of blorps of buttermilk, the kind you bought. Close the carton, give it a shake, and leave it out on the counter overnight.

Oh, sweet queen of dairy!

It works. You shake it again, and chill in the refrigerator.

The texture is velvety, creamy, thick and caressing. The flavor is hard to describe. You definitely taste the culture you used to create this treasure, but you also taste the fresh, whole milk you cultured. Better than buttermilk. Bettermilk. I can't tell you enough how good it is. (And cheaper than store-bought!)