Buttermilk, do you know how it's made?
Traditional Buttermilk is the whey left over from the butter making process, full of naturally occurring lactic acid bacteria that ferment the cream prior to churning and make a viscous acidic milk drink "buttermilk".
The supposed "Buttermilk" that you buy in the supermarket is made by adding lactic acid bacteria to pasteurised skim milk & skim milk powder and fermenting it to achieve a similar product as the Traditional Buttermilk.
As it has a Similar fermentation and creates similar flavour profiles, thus given a descriptor “cultured buttermilk” and "Buttermilk" by dairy companies.
But it ain't the real deal - why?
It hasn't come from a butter making process.
It should be called "Fermented Milk" or "Sour Milk".
In the early 1900s, to stop consumers from being mislead this fermented milk was labeled "artificial buttermilk", to differentiate it from traditional buttermilk, which was known as natural or ordinary buttermilk.
"When a food has no compositional requirement in the Code, the name of the Food, should be the true name" - Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ)
Butter-maker Pierre Issa (Pepe Saya) is joined by restaurant entrepreneurs Alex Herbert (Bird, Cow, Fish) & Michael McEnearney (Kitchen by Mike) explaining how buttermilk is made, the benefits of buttermilk and how traditional buttermilk differs from buttermilk made from skim milk.
