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Buttermilk isn’t a staple in our house because I don’t use it weekly. This means that if I decide to make a recipe that calls for buttermilk, I either have to make a grocery store run or I need to come up with an alternative. Thankfully, I know a great homemade buttermilk substitute that gets me through! If you find yourself needing a bit of buttermilk for a recipe, but don’t want to buy a whole quart, read on!

What is Buttermilk?

There are two main types of buttermilk- traditional and cultured. Let’s break those down just a little bit before we get into making our substitute.

Traditional Buttermilk:

This is the liquid that you have left over after making butter. Hence the name, buttermilk. You need to whip heavy cream (fresh or store-bought) until it breaks to have this type of buttermilk.

Cultured Buttermilk:

You can make cultured buttermilk by adding cultures to whole milk. The commercial buttermilk that you buy in stores is also cultured milk.

Easy Homemade Buttermilk Substitute Recipe

Traditional buttermilk is easy peasy to extract out of heavy cream so that is my first go-to option… but what if there is no fresh cream in the refrigerator? No worries! This simple buttermilk substitute works great in almost any recipe that requires buttermilk.

This buttermilk alternative only requires two ingredients and you probably have both of them in stock. Grab some milk and either lemon juice or distilled white vinegar and you are ready to go! Whole milk and fresh lemon juice are my favorite options, but you can also use 2% milk with bottled lemon juice or white vinegar.

Once you have your homemade buttermilk prepared, substitute it at a 1:1 ratio for buttermilk in any recipe that calls for it.

homemade buttermilk substitute in mason jar

Ingredients

1 cup whole milk
1 TBSP lemon juice (or white vinegar)

STEP 1

Pour the milk and a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice (vinegar) into a small bowl or a measuring cup.

pouring lemon juice into milk to make a buttermilk substitute

STEP 2

Let the milk mixture sit for about 5 minutes until it starts to curdle. When you see little chunks forming in the milk it is ready to use.

STEP 3

Store this buttermilk alternative in an airtight container (like a mason jar) in the fridge and use it as needed.

How to Store Buttermilk Substitute

This buttermilk substitute (and homemade buttermilk from fresh cream) can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for a few days. It can also be frozen in a sealed container. If you want to portion it out, freeze the buttermilk in ice cube trays (1 TBSP/well), pop them out, and store them in a freezer bag.

Here are a Few Buttermilk Recipe Ideas:

Use this buttermilk substitute in any recipe that calls for buttermilk. Some of these recipes only call for milk (whole or 2%), but buttermilk can be used instead.