Homemade butter, the buttermilk

I occasionally make homemade butter. The pour off liquid that separates, to my knowledge, is buttermilk. It is different, however, from regular store bought buttermilk in that it hasn't been cultured.

So is it in essence similar to skim milk, or is it an uncultured buttermilk and nothing like skim milk?

Have you soaped with it and if so, did you like the results? I have some frozen from making butter and am contemplating using it in my next soap. Tia!

You are correct, the stuff you have is real buttermilk, the stuff sold in stores is not. It's cultured, like yogurt. The powdered stuff, tho, is actual buttermilk powder.

I would say use and treat it like buttermilk not skim milk, and I am betting it will make fabulous soap.

eta: I have not used homemade fresh buttermilk in soap but I have used the powder and I love it.

I assumed it was similar to skim milk, just because it's fat"ter" free being I separated it from butter.

New12. Thx for the comment!!! I am getting adventurous and deciding to 'potentially' try it.

Just *hoping* it has enough fat to be beneficial to the ole formula.

Thx again!

Like New12 I use the powder and love it. I do not care for using the cultured buttermilk as will. You will love it I am sure. For a double whammy if you have any powdered coconut milk or goats milk you can add in a scoop or so of powder to your real buttermilk

lionprincess00 said:

I assumed it was similar to skim milk, just because it's fat"ter" free being I separated it from butter.

Just *hoping* it has enough fat to be beneficial to the ole formula.

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Having milked cows and goats over many years, I've made a ton of butter, both cultured and uncultured.

Basically what remains after making sweet (uncultured) butter is a kind of grayish, skimmed milk... it is not the same as cultured buttermilk in stores and in powders. It's actually rather flat and tasteless because culturing is what gives true buttermilk its flavor and leavening power, nor can it be used for extra leavening as in buttermilk pancakes and biscuits, etc.

However, you can culture that skim flat milk with a bit of kefir or commercial buttermilk. Just add it to the milk and leave it on your counter for 12-24 hours until it gets thick and bubbly... the longer you leave it, the more tart the buttermilk becomes. This is a great way to make perpetual buttermilk for the price of grocery milk. When my buttermilk jug gets down to about 1/4 left, I just refill it with more milk and let it re-culture on the counter. Cultured buttermilk is actually healthier for you to drink than is regular milk.

Anyway, though your uncultured leftover milk from buttermaking will lack extra lactic acid of culturing, its proteins and sugars will still have good effect in increasing soap lathering, so all is not lost!

OTOH, the fat content of even 4% whole milk in soap is fairly negligible, and isn't going to make any difference, really, compared to say, 20% coconut milk.

Jenny