Cooking with Dehydrated Buttermilk

Today’s kitchen adventure was a risky one for me, I must admit.

I have a favorite salad dressing recipe in my mom’s cookbook that I am in love with.  I have heard some of my mom’s friends say they could drink it with a straw.  The recipe requires a myriad of green-colored ingredients, including tomatillos, cilantro and store-bought buttermilk ranch powdered dressing.  The recipe also calls for a cup of fresh buttermilk.

This dressing accents many meals for my husband and me, so choosing to replace fresh buttermilk with powdered buttermilk was a little scary.  This was true especially considering I did not have directions for how many parts water to buttermilk powder was needed.  But I forged ahead.

I went to the Internet and found the water-to-buttermilk ratio first.  I mixed the water and buttermilk until the buttermilk was almost dissolved.  I wasn’t as careful at dissolving the buttermilk as I would have been if making something else because the dressing is mixed in a blender.  After adding the other ingredients, whipping the dressing up and holding my breath, I tasted it.

I have to say it wasn’t quite the same, but it was close enough that I still enjoyed it.  The dressing was still devoured and the ingredients were not wasted.    My husband would use powdered buttermilk again, but not for this dressing.  Though he ate just as much of this batch of dressing as ones we have made before, he likes it to taste the exact same every time.   In the future, I would probably use the powdered buttermilk again in the dressing because we have a supply of it.  I find it close enough to fresh buttermilk.  But, as is seen in the difference of opinion between me and my husband, it comes down to your personal tastes.  My advice is to try powdered buttermilk out.  You may be surprised.

Until next time,

Patty Prepared

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