Buttermilk Lovers Buttermilk By Sy Recipes

BUTTER AND BUTTERMILK

Steps:

• Stir together the cream and buttermilk in a bowl and let stand at room temperature to ripen until the mixture becomes thick and sour-smelling (16 to 24 hours). Cover tightly and refrigerate for several hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.
• Place in refrigerator a food processor fitted with the steel blade, 2 metal mixing bowls and a wire-mesh strainer in the refrigerator. Have ready 2 to 3 cups of ice water. (Cold is your friend here, warmth the enemy.) Set up the food processor and add half the cream (or all of it, if you have a machine with at least 11-cup capacity). Leave the rest in the refrigerator. Begin processing and watch closely as the cream thickens and whips. (It will take longer with homogenized and/or ultrapasteurized cream.) Soon after this stage, within a few minutes or even seconds, the cream will start to look less white. As soon as you see it breaking into something slightly granular, stop the machine and take a look. Cautiously proceed until the cream is quite definitely separated into cloudy whitish buttermilk and clumps of ivory or yellow butter.
• Set the strainer over a chilled bowl and dump in the contents of the processor, scraping out any clinging butter particles with a rubber spatula. Put the strainer and bowl in the refrigerator while you repeat the processing with the rest of the cream. Add the second batch of butter to what you have in the strainer. Measure the strained buttermilk, pour it into a storage container and chill in the refrigerator.
• Turn out the butter into another bowl and add roughly as much ice water -- straining out the ice -- as you have buttermilk. Work the butter into a mass with a strong wooden spoon or spatula. Drain off as much liquid as you can and go on working the butter. You will see it becoming smoother and waxier under the spoon, as the butterfat comes together in a continuous mass. When no more liquid seems to be coming out, pat it dry with paper towels, pack it into a small container and promptly refrigerate it, tightly covered.

HOMEMADE BUTTERMILK

Steps:

• Here's how: In a mason jar, combine 1/2 cup cultured buttermilk (the supermarket stuff is okay here; it will act as a starter), 2 cups whole milk, and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Cover and let stand in a warm place until the buttermilk thickens and coats the sides of the jar when tipped, 24-36 hours. Keep chilled for up to 2 weeks.

HOMEMADE YOGURT BY SY

Steps:

• Place the milk and cream into a pot and bring to almost a boil. Making sure you don't burn the milk on the bottom of the pot (A non-stick pot if possible).
• Turn off heat and let cool to 115 degrees.
• As the milk is heating up and then cooling add 3-4 tablespoons of cultured yogurt in a cup.
• Let sit at room temperature (about 70 degrees).
• When the milk has cooled to the correct temperature, add some to the cup with the yogurt.
• Next stir well and then add back into the pot of milk, stir.
• Next take a clean glass jar/ovenproof bowl and pour the milk into it, stir well.
• Cover the jar/bowl with plastic wrap and then a dish cloth.
• Take a clip-on desk lamp (shade and with a 75 watt bulb) and point it toward the surface of the jar/bowl (about 6 inches away).
• Let the jar/bowl with the milk and yogurt starter incubate under the heat lamp for about 8 to 12 hours. I prefer 12 hours, with the finished yogurt having a nice tangy taste and consistency!
• Refrigerate!
• NOTE: The longer you let the yogurt stay under the heat lamp, the more tangy the yogurt will taste.
• The amount of yogurt starter used is another factor in the success of the finished yogurt; too much or too little is no good.
• Also, the environment in which you place the jar/bowl can effect the finished yogurt as well.
• For example, if you are placing the jar/bowl of milk in a 80-85 degree kitchen area you can reduce the time it sits under the lamp. Or in some cases no lamp is needed.
• Further, you can use a conventional oven which has been heated to 200 degrees and then turned off. Then place the jar/bowl with the milk & yogurt starter inside the oven for about 2 to 4 plus hour.
• (I have also used my microwave convection oven, but not the microwave feature).