Emergency Buttermilk Substitutes

Need a carton of buttermilk for a recipe but just realized you don’t have any? Drop those car keys! We’ve rounded up 10 of our favorite homemade buttermilk substitutes for cooking and baking. From easy replacements to dairy-free alternatives, there’s something for everyone in here!

What is Buttermilk?

Traditionally, buttermilk was made as a byproduct of butter. Cream was churned into butter and the residual liquid was left to sit and ferment into buttermilk. This was popular as it remained fresh at room temperature for longer than straight cow’s milk does. A real advantage before refrigeration.

Today, however, store-bought buttermilk is made by adding lactic acid bacteria to milk which causes fermentation. This results in a tangy flavor and thicker consistency than milk. 

Buttermilk Uses in Baking and Cooking

Before we can consider substitutes, it is important to understand all the things buttermilk does in a recipe. In a sentence, buttermilk adds moisture, tenderness, and acidity to recipes. The lactic acid reacts with baking soda in your recipe to generate carbon dioxide bubbles. These, in turn, work to leaven the dough, making lighter and fluffier baked goods. Buttermilk also breaks down gluten, helping to produce softer baked products.

When a recipe calls for buttermilk, it is generally because of the need for its lactic acid, so don’t just replace it with straight milk (which is not acidic). Your baking recipes will not likely rise properly.

Buttermilk also adds a tangy flavor, moisture, and creamy consistency to your recipe. All of these factors need to be considered in choosing a substitute.

Substitutes for Buttermilk

Replicating buttermilk’s tangy flavor and ensuring you have a match for its pH can make it a bit challenging to find a perfect match. However, we will detail many well-tried substitutes and a few less common options you might want to try. 

Lemon Juice or Vinegar

This is the easiest and most common way to make a buttermilk substitute. Using vinegar or lemon juice mimics the acidity and tanginess of buttermilk reasonably well and generally results in tender and fluffy baked goods. You can use white or apple cider vinegar, or lemon juice. Vinegar will have a slightly tangier taste than lemon juice. You can use any regular milk, but our preference is for whole milk followed by 2%, 1%, and preferably not skim milk. Whole milk will yield a thicker substitute more like buttermilk.

This basic recipe can be used for most recipes calling for buttermilk. There are obvious taste differences. Cultured buttermilk is made with lactic acid. Lemon juice contains citric acid and vinegar acetic acid, so the taste won’t be an exact match. We like lemon juice for baking uses and vinegar for tenderizing meat and when we want its tangy flavor.

Ingredients

Buttermilk Needed	Milk	Vinegar or Lemon Juice
1/2 cup	1/2 cup	1 1/2 teaspoon
1 cup	1 cup	1 Tablespoon
2 cups	2 cups	2 Tablespoon

Plant-Based Buttermilk Substitutes

You can use any of the recently popular non-dairy “milks” to make buttermilk. While they may not be ideal substitutes for buttermilk in all recipes, they do provide easy lactose-free buttermilk alternatives. These include almond milk, oat milk, rice milk, coconut drink (drink not actual coconut milk or coconut cream), hemp drink, and soy milk. 

One problem with all of these is that the casein protein in cow’s milk curdles when the pH reaches 4.6 or higher, thickening the milk. This doesn’t happen in plant-based drinks when acidic ingredients are added because there is no casein protein to clump.

Instructions

Make plant based buttermilk with the same instructions we listed for milk using either vinegar or lemon juice. Expect these to have a different consistency and flavor than using whole cow’s milk. Rice milk will not be very creamy, coconut will impart a distinct flavor, and almond a mild flavor. Be sure to consider how it will affect the recipe you are making. Almond or coconut could be a nice flavor to add to buttermilk pancakes, muffins, and some cakes. For the closest flavor match to buttermilk, our favorite pick is soy.

Coconut Milk

Coconut milk should produce a buttermilk with a consistency close to the real deal. You can use it as you would milk with the same scant cup of milk and 1 TBSP or vinegar of lemon juice. Coconut Cream is a bit thicker, and you may want to cut it with milk, water, or coconut milk. The proportion depends upon how thick you want it, but we suggest about ⅔ cup coconut cream to ⅓ cup milk or water. A substitute made from 1 cup of coconut milk will contain about 525 calories and 1 cup of coconut cream 760 calories.

Again, use this substitute when the coconut flavor will complement the recipe it is added to. 

Cream Of Tartar

1 cup milk and 1 ¾ tsp cream of tartar makes a pretty good faux buttermilk. Tartar (Potassium bitartrate) is a combination of tartaric acid from grapes neutralized with potassium hydroxide. It is a good way to acidify milk into buttermilk without leaving a lot of its own flavor. 

Ingredients

Buttermilk Needed	Milk	Cream of Tartar
1/2 cup	1/2 cup	1 tsp
1 cup	1 cup	1 3/4 tsp
2 cups	2 cups	4 tsp

Instructions

Make this buttermilk as you would with lemon juice or vinegar except that you should add the cream of tartar powder to the other dry ingredients, not the milk. 

Powdered Buttermilk

You can buy powdered, dehydrated buttermilk and return it to a liquid state by adding water, per the instructions on the package. The typical proportion for this should be 1 cup of water to ¼ cup of powdered buttermilk. We recommend that you do not make the buttermilk and add it to your recipe. Instead, add the powdered buttermilk to other dry ingredients and stir it in. Similarly, add the water to other liquid ingredients and add them to the recipe altogether. 

Unless you are looking for non-dairy, lactose-free, or vegan alternatives, this is our favorite substitute for liquid buttermilk. It will store in your pantry a long time, be ready when you need it, and you can adjust the consistency easily to match the results you want from your recipe

Kefir

Kefir is generally considered a great substitute for buttermilk. As it is already fermented, you can just use it as a 1:1 substitute. Kefir is a fermented milk with lots of probiotics. It is made from pasteurized milk and two forms of yeast. This gives it its unique tangy flavor. We just recommend you use an unflavored variety of kefir so that it doesn’t change the flavor of your recipe any more than the substitute would otherwise. As a slight aside, if you want to make your own homemade kefir, it is really simple.

Yogurt

People use many different amounts of yogurt in buttermilk replacements. Plain yogurt can, in many recipes, be substituted on a 1:1 basis for buttermilk. The flavor should be compatible with most recipes, but it is a bit more dense. It should make a good thick batter and produce light biscuits that brown well.

For a thinner substitute closer to the consistency of buttermilk, try 2 parts plain yogurt to 1 part milk. For Greek Yogurt, you may need to use 1 part yogurt to 2 parts milk. Simply combine the ingredients and stir or blend.

Ingredients

Buttermilk Needed	Milk	Yogurt
1 cup	0	1 cup plain
1 cup thin	1/3 cup	2/3 cup plain
1 cup	2/3 cup	1/3 cup Greek

Applesauce

You can use applesauce as a 1:1 alternative to buttermilk. For each cup of buttermilk use 1 cup of applesauce with 1 Tbsp of vinegar or lemon juice. The vinegar will add a tangier taste. After making the buttermilk, test it to see if you need to add more vinegar or lemon juice to get the taste you want.

Sour Cream

We think sour cream is a good flavor proxy for buttermilk. Sour cream is fermented cream, which helps it retain its creamy, thick texture. Low-fat sour cream is a pretty good texture match to buttermilk and can be used 1:1. The full fat variety may need to be cut. We recommend mixing ¾ cup to ¼ cup milk or water. If this still looks too thick to you, try ½ sour cream and ½ milk or water. We like using sour cream and water for coffee cakes and biscuits. Simply combine ingredients and stir or blend.

Ingredients

Buttermilk Needed	Sour Cream	Milk or Water
1/2 cup	6 Tbsp	2 Tbsp
1 cup	3/4 cups	1/4 cup
1 1/2 cups	1 cup & 2 Tbsp	6 Tbsp
2 cups	1 1/2 cups	1/2 cup

Tofu

Tofu can be used as a decent buttermilk replacement. You can easily make this into a vegan buttermilk substitute by using water or a plant-based drink (almond, oat, etc) instead of milk. We suggest using silken tofu as its smooth texture mimics buttermilk fairly well.

Blend the milk, tofu, and salt in your blender until smooth. Add the acid (vinegar or lemon juice) and blend again briefly. Let the mixture sit for 5 – 10 minutes. 

Buttermilk	Milk	Tofu	Salt	Acid
1/2 cup	1/2 cup	2 Tbsp	1/2 tsp	1 1/2 tsp
1 cup	1 cup	1/4 cup	1 tsp	1 Tbsp
1 1/2 cups	1 1/2 cups	6 Tbsp	1 1/2 tsp	4 1/2 tsp
2 cups	2 cups	1/2 cup	2 tsp	2 Tbsp

What to Do With Leftover Buttermilk

This article is written because most people don’t use buttermilk very often, so it seems appropriate to discuss what to do with leftover buttermilk.

An open container of buttermilk will last about two weeks in your refrigerator. Most substitutes will likely last a little less. Powdered buttermilk will last 3+ years unopened and 6-12 months once opened. Powdered is a great option for keeping buttermilk at the ready and not having to think about what to do with excess as you can easily make just what you need. 

You can also freeze buttermilk. Put your leftover buttermilk into ice cube trays and freeze it. Once frozen you can move it into a storage bag.  You could also simply pour set amounts into Ziploc bags and freeze them in convenient cooking amounts like ½ cup, 1 cup, etc.  It will generally last frozen for 3 months or longer.