Substitution guide

Buttermilk Substitutes

Lemon juice or white vinegar + milk → soured milk:

1 tbspacid per cup of milk

Stir 1 tbsp (15 ml) lemon juice or white vinegar into 1 cup (250 ml) of milk and let it stand for 5–15 minutes, until it thickens slightly and curdles. Use that soured milk 1:1 in place of buttermilk. An Australian tablespoon is 20 ml, so measure 15 ml (3 teaspoons) rather than a heaped Australian spoon.

Buttermilk earns its place in a recipe through its acidity. Paired with baking soda, that acid gives baked goods their lift, and it adds a smooth tang and a light, moist texture along the way. That is why plain milk is not a good stand-in: in King Arthur Baking’s side-by-side test, a cake made with plain milk came out darker and denser because "", plain-milk pancakes rose less, and plain-milk biscuits tasted flat. Every substitute below works by putting that acid back — either by souring milk with lemon juice, vinegar or cream of tartar, or by using another cultured dairy product such as yoghurt, kefir or sour cream.

Cultured buttermilk is a slightly thick milk with a yoghurt-like tang. Soured milk only gets part of the way there: after standing it "" (King Arthur), and Milk Street’s testers found its acidity one-note next to the rounder flavour of cultured products. How much that matters depends on the bake — in King Arthur’s cake test the buttermilk flavour was lost anyway and any substitute did as well, while in biscuits real buttermilk was clearly best and the vinegar and cream of tartar versions lacked depth.

Buttermilk was originally the liquid left over when cream was churned into butter. The buttermilk sold today is a different, cultured product — made like yoghurt, by adding harmless bacteria to milk. In Australia it is a standard supermarket line: Pauls Buttermilk, for example, is cultured low-fat milk (1.0 g fat per 100 ml), sold in 600 ml bottles in the milk fridge.

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Substitutes at a glance

Milk + lemon juice	1 cup milk + 1 tbsp (15 ml) lemon juice per cup
Milk + white vinegar	1 cup milk + 1 tbsp (15 ml) white vinegar per cup
Milk + cream of tartar	1 cup milk + 1 3/4 tsp cream of tartar per cup
Plain yoghurt + milk	200 ml plain yoghurt + 50 ml milk or water per 250 ml
Plain kefir	1:1 by volume
Sour cream + milk	3/4 cup sour cream + 1/4 cup milk or water per cup

Milk + lemon juice: Stir in and stand 10–15 minutes (King Arthur) or 5–10 minutes (Silver Spoon). America’s Test Kitchen uses a little more lemon — 1½ tbsp (about 22 ml) per cup — against 1 tbsp of vinegar. Use full-cream or reduced-fat milk; skim "". Unsweetened soy, almond, oat or coconut milk soured the same way gives a dairy-free version.
Milk + white vinegar: The most common pantry swap: stand 5 minutes (Milk Street, America’s Test Kitchen) to 15 minutes (King Arthur). Apple cider vinegar works too. It does the chemical job well, but it was the weakest substitute in Milk Street’s side-by-side tests in every bake except yellow cake, and King Arthur found vinegar biscuits lacked depth of flavour.
Milk + cream of tartar: Shake until the cream of tartar dissolves (King Arthur). It clumps if stirred straight into milk, so either whisk it into the recipe’s dry ingredients or into a couple of tablespoons of the milk first. Like vinegar, it gave King Arthur biscuits that lacked depth of flavour.
Plain yoghurt + milk: Whisk until smooth (Silver Spoon). Thick Greek yoghurt needs more thinning: King Arthur found it worked best mixed 1:2 with 1% or skim milk (one part yoghurt, two parts milk) — that mix was runner-up to real buttermilk in its biscuit test and level with it in pancakes. Use unsweetened, unflavoured yoghurt.
Plain kefir: Kefir and buttermilk have a similar taste, consistency and fat content. In Milk Street’s tests a one-for-one swap made biscuits, pancakes and cornbread as good as or better than buttermilk; only the cake was slightly denser. Use plain, unsweetened kefir.
Sour cream + milk: Whisk until smooth (Healthline); King Arthur thins sour cream with milk or water to the consistency of pouring cream. It behaves much like thinned Greek yoghurt but is richer — a good use for a half-finished tub.

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= 1 cup Milk + lemon juice

Stir in and stand 10–15 minutes (King Arthur) or 5–10 minutes (Silver Spoon). America’s Test Kitchen uses a little more lemon — 1½ tbsp (about 22 ml) per cup — against 1 tbsp of vinegar. Use full-cream or reduced-fat milk; skim "". Unsweetened soy, almond, oat or coconut milk soured the same way gives a dairy-free version.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

How do I make buttermilk with lemon juice or vinegar?

Stir 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of lemon juice or white vinegar into 1 cup (250 ml) of full-cream or reduced-fat milk and let it stand for 5–15 minutes, until it thickens slightly and curdles, then use it cup for cup in place of buttermilk. Australian tablespoons are 20 ml, so use 3 teaspoons rather than an Australian tablespoon to avoid over-souring it.

Can I just use regular milk instead of buttermilk?

Not without adding acid. Recipes that call for buttermilk usually rely on its acidity to react with baking soda for lift. In King Arthur Baking’s test, plain milk made a darker, denser cake, pancakes that rose less and biscuits that tasted flat. Souring the milk with lemon juice or vinegar first fixes it.

What is the best substitute for buttermilk?

For flavour, another cultured product. Milk Street found plain kefir, swapped 1:1, as good as or better than buttermilk in biscuits, pancakes and cornbread, and King Arthur found Greek yoghurt thinned 1:2 with milk the runner-up in biscuits and level with buttermilk in pancakes. Milk soured with vinegar works chemically but was the weakest for flavour — though in cakes, King Arthur found any substitute did as well as the real thing.

Can I buy buttermilk in Australia?

Yes — cultured buttermilk is sold in supermarket milk fridges, for example Pauls Buttermilk (600 ml, cultured low-fat milk with 1.0 g fat per 100 ml). It is not the traditional by-product of butter churning; it is low-fat milk with cultures added, which gives it a slightly thick texture and a yoghurt-like tang.

Can I freeze leftover buttermilk?

Yes. America’s Test Kitchen freezes it in ice cube trays for up to a month. Thawed in the fridge it separates, but it whisks back together with no ill effects; or thaw the cubes in the microwave on medium power.

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Sources: King Arthur Baking — Buttermilk substitute: what to use (ratios, standing time, biscuit/pancake/cake test results); America’s Test Kitchen — Answering all your buttermilk questions (soured milk ratio, yoghurt, what buttermilk does, freezing); Milk Street — Why kefir makes a great substitute for buttermilk (side-by-side tests vs milk + vinegar); Silver Spoon — Buttermilk substitutes (metric ratios, milk type, dairy-free option); Pauls Buttermilk 600mL — how it is made, ingredients & fat content (Australian retail); Healthline — Buttermilk substitutes (sour cream ratio, acidity and baking soda)