History of buttermilk

Throughout history, buttermilk has been held to be a sovereign cure for a wide range of maladies.

Some of the historical records depict the development of a dairy system in ancient India. It is well known in ancient Indian history that buttermilk and ghee were widely consumed milk products during Lord Krishna’s time, about 3000 BC.

The Irish drink large amounts of fresh milk, sour milk, clotted milk and buttermilk and they used milk to make cream, curds, cheese, butter and buttermilk.

In traditional Irish cooking, buttermilk was never far away. It leavened the daily soda bread and served as the ‘whet’ who a plate of plain potatoes and salt.

When Irish migrated to North America, the continued to keep cows and enjoy buttermilk.

With the advent of centrifugal cream separators in the 19th century, butter making produced ‘sweet’ unfermented buttermilk.

For more than 100 years, cooks of south United States have been using buttermilk to make custard-like or cheese-style pies.

In Southern Food, John Egerton notes that Farm and Home Magazine published a buttermilk pie recipe in 1882.

Today, buttermilk is a cultured milk product which means that it is made by combining bacteria and milk to grow a culture. It is made by adding a special bacterial culture to low-fat or non-fat milk so that it thickens and develops a tangy taste.

Buttermilk is still important ingredients in traditional cooking, a vital agent for flavoring, baking, and marinating.
History of buttermilk