RIPE with CULTURE

MAKE DELICIOUS, REFRESHING BREADS, MARINADES & MORE.

- BY PATRICIA LEHNHARDT

Dreaming of crispy waffles and rich, dark coffee as I slowly stir from a restful sleep can only mean one thing: It's going to be a buttermilk morning! Just the word "buttermilk" brings back memories of home on the farm, warm cozy afternoons with buttermilk scones and tea in front of the fire, crispy fried chicken for Sunday supper, luscious cakes made for neighbors dropping in to chat over coffee, or a relaxing soak in a buttermilk-and-honey bath.

Buttermilk's roots can be traced to when people started domesticating dairy animals. It's been a staple of farm life as long as butter. At the beginning of the 20th century, drinking buttermilk became a health craze after a Russian biologist, Elie Metchnikoff, claimed people in the Balkans were living longer from drinking buttermilk. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg even served "Bulgarian buttermilk" in his health clinic in Battle Creek, Michigan.

The mechanization of the milking process and spread of refrigeration technologies all but eliminated the need to make butter at home. As a result, traditional buttermilk became scarce, and the dairy industry started making cultured buttermilk to supply the demand for the healthy beverage. It was the thing to drink for health, longevity and dieting from the 1920s through the '60s, when it hit its peak production. Soon thereafter, it lost its star status, being upstaged by yogurt, another fermented milk product.

THE BASICS OF BUTTERMILK

Butter can be produced from any milk. On small farms in the United States, it's typically derived from cows, goats or sheep. In other parts of the world, farmers use the milk of reindeer, yak, moose, horses, donkeys, llamas or camels.

There are three basic kinds of buttermilk.

TRADITIONAL BUTTERMILK, a buttermaking byproduct.

CULTURED BUTTERMILK, made 3 ways: