Buttermilk from goat milk?

Shiloh Acres

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Hi all!

I'm wanting buttermilk for recipes, and it's silly-expensive in the store. Now, I don't know how buttermilk is actually made, but it seems to me that Grandma used to just put a pitcher of milk out on the counter overnight and call it buttermilk or sour milk and cook with it the next day.

Any chance this would work with fresh goat milk? Grandma would keep sour milk back in the fridge for a few days. Does anyone think this could work?

Thanks!!!
 

freemotion

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You can use any cultured milk in its place, like homemade yogurt or kefir. You can leave your milk out overnight (in a closed container to keep out flies) and it will naturally sour....I tried this once and made cheese with it, skipping the culturing step. It came out good, but not as good as the same cheese made with cultures.

If you want the type of buttermilk you buy in the store, you can add some live buttermilk to fresh milk and let it sit for 24 hours or more at room temp, then when you need more, take some from that bottle and make some more. So you will always have fresh buttermilk available. You just need to remember to make up a fresh batch now and then if you go a while without using it, so the good bacteria remain alive.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4504798_real-homemade-cultured-buttermilk.html

I find my cultured goat's milk products really love warm milk right from the goat. You don't need to, but wow, do the cultures grow!

I use kefir instead of buttermilk in baking and it works great!
 

Shiloh Acres

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Thank you SO much Free! That's good to know!

I'm going to visit that link also.

I am wondering too. .. I have some powdered buttermilk for cooking. I wonder if I can use some of that to start the goats milk, or if it is still live?

I'm only milking one doe once a day, and she's recently bred, so I doubt I'll have very much milk much longer, but maybe starting with her freshening I can keep it going. :)

thanks again!!!
 

ohiofarmgirl

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i make buttermilk all the time - easy peasy. just like the steps say...

i add the store bought buttermilk (smallest container i can find) to a quart jar (usually there is about a cup or a cup and a half) then fill with goat milk (strained) still warm from one of my gals. sit it in a warmish place (on a hot day you can put it outside, not in the sun)...and about 24 hrs later it should smell and taste just like "real" buttermilk.

you can also buy starter from Hoegger Goat Supply (or any of the others). its just a dried powder that you do the same thing to.

we use a ton of it - especially in baking.

the "other" buttermilk is the watery stuff left after you shake a jar of cow's cream to get butter. this is not cultured but wow the biscuits it makes!

:)
 

Henrietta23

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I bought the culture from New England Cheese Making Co. and use it with goat's milk. Makes nice salad dressing and cole slaw dressing.
 

freemotion

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The powdered buttermilk you buy in the baking aisle will not culture your milk....if it did, I'd be amazed....That is a big commodity and dried under very different circumstances than the carefully dehydrated cultures, which are then stored at controlled temps and rotated fairly often. Buy "real" buttermilk once and you should be good for life, if you are more organized than I am.... :rolleyes:
 

Shiloh Acres

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Thanks so much everyone. I am so glad I asked. :)

I am learning SO MUCH here, and I'm really glad for it. All the kinds of info I wish I'd taken the time to learn when I was growing up, but didn't. It seems like it's been lost to my family in the generations

My aunt was telling me how my grandma did some things -- like using a coffee can and avlight bulb as a working incubator.

Now I'm rambling ... But seriously, thank you all. If it's a long-term investment, I don't mind buying buttermilk. LOL I am going to have to label all these milk jars -- raw goat milk, pasturized goat milk, buttermilk ... Not to mention dates on all of it to rotate.

Before long I'm going to be dreaming of a second fridge. ;)
 

freemotion

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I use rubber bands and keep a basket of cut up scrap paper to slip labels onto jars and bottles that can be easily applied, easily read and easily discarded.
 

Shiloh Acres

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Thanks for that tip, Free. :)

I usually line my jars of raw milk up in order of freshness, and if I pasturize any it goes in a large glass pitcher. But even having to keep them lined up means I can't use my fridge freely.

I have a little drawer in my kitchen that is a perfect spot for paper slips and I already keep rubber bands in here. This will be easier than masking tape labels that I probably would have done, since that's what I use in the freezer.

Thanks again!!!
 
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