Friday, March 4, 2011

Science Geek strikes again!

The husband has dreams of being a line chef, so my mom gave him his own griddle. This weekend, the husband decided to christen his new culinary toy with homemade buttermilk pancakes.

Grand idea! I thought. I love buttermilk pancakes!

One minor issue. The likelihood of me having buttermilk on hand was incredibly small. The likelihood of me changing out of my jammies to buy buttermilk at the grocery store? Even smaller.

This was when my inner science geek took over. I had read that you could add lemon juice to milk and use that in place of buttermilk. Well, it was high time I did a little experiment to test this out.

I whisked lemon juice into regular old milk from my fridge. Then, I let the mixture sit on the counter for a few minutes to thicken. Although I was dubious when I went to check the results, the experiment worked! The milk had thickened up and looked just like buttermilk. And, most importantly, it made the husband's pancakes light and fluffy.

So, next time you're making pancakes, unleash your inner science geek and remember this:

1 tablespoon lemon juice + 1 cup milk = buttermilk!!

9 comments:

  1. Woooooooooooooooooooooooo hoooooooooooooooooo! This is an awesome tip! Thanks!

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  2. Isn't it great to have hints like this to save time (and I always have leftover buttermilk that ages in the fridge so long that I'm scared to look inside!)? I bet the pancakes were wonderful...and tender :)

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  3. I can remember my mother doing the same trick on a Sunday morning when we wanted pancakes but were out of buttermilk. She used vinegar, but got the same result.

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  4. This is definitely one to file away. Thanks for sharing!

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  5. Good question, Christina. I used 1% milk because that's what I had in the fridge. And Gayle, I might just have to try this with vinegar next time!

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  6. feel free to geek out. Very cool post.

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  7. I never buy buttermilk, I just make the 'sour milk" with lemon juice or you can also use vinegar. Works perfectly!

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