Guest guest Posted October 7, 2004 Report Share Posted October 7, 2004 Judy- >What exactly is buttermilk? Is it the milk left after butter is made from >it? How does is differ from skim milk, if skim milk also has all the milk >fat removed? Thanks. Actually, two different dairy products go by the same name, confusingly enough. Traditional buttermilk is the lowfat liquid left over after making butter. I'm not really sure how it differs from skim milk, actually -- probably that's where skim milk originally came from. Modern buttermilk (the sort you'd find in a store labeled as such) is actually a particular form of cultured milk, though often enough it's unfortunately made from skim or even nonfat milk. I believe that this confusion arose because most traditional butters were in fact cultured, made from soured or otherwise cultured or clabbered milk or cream, so the leftover milk was generally a sour, cultured liquid. Nowadays, with most butter being sweet, the " real " buttermilk left over is also sweet, so at some point people took to using organisms presumably similar to those originally used to sour milk and cream for butter to create a soured milk drink meant to resemble the original sour buttermilk. I trust that obscures. <g> - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 7, 2004 Report Share Posted October 7, 2004 What is left after you skim the cream off of milk? Is that still whole milk? >> What exactly is buttermilk? Is it the milk left after butter is made from >> it? How does is differ from skim milk, if skim milk also has all the milk >> fat removed? Thanks. > > Actually, two different dairy products go by the same name, confusingly > enough. Traditional buttermilk is the lowfat liquid left over after making > butter. I'm not really sure how it differs from skim milk, actually -- > probably that's where skim milk originally came from. Modern buttermilk > (the sort you'd find in a store labeled as such) is actually a particular > form of cultured milk, though often enough it's unfortunately made from > skim or even nonfat milk. > > I believe that this confusion arose because most traditional butters were > in fact cultured, made from soured or otherwise cultured or clabbered milk > or cream, so the leftover milk was generally a sour, cultured > liquid. Nowadays, with most butter being sweet, the " real " buttermilk left > over is also sweet, so at some point people took to using organisms > presumably similar to those originally used to sour milk and cream for > butter to create a soured milk drink meant to resemble the original sour > buttermilk. > > I trust that obscures. <g> > > > > > - > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 7, 2004 Report Share Posted October 7, 2004 Elaine- >What is left after you skim the cream off of milk? Is that still whole milk? No, definitely not. It's skim milk, but I'm not sure what percent fat it is. I'd imagine it's close to but not quite nonfat. - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 7, 2004 Report Share Posted October 7, 2004 It depends how long you let the milk sit, too. As it sits, the cream gets thicker and the skim gets thinner. Aven > Elaine- > > >What is left after you skim the cream off of milk? Is that still whole milk? > > No, definitely not. It's skim milk, but I'm not sure what percent fat it > is. I'd imagine it's close to but not quite nonfat. > > > > - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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