My Homemade Buttermilk

I really like old-fashioned homemade buttermilk and often make it at home.  Because it is more natural, I believe it is also healthier. When I was thinking what I should write about in my first biology blog, I remembered buttermilk and thought of how it is being made.  The manufacturing process at production plants is probably much more complicated and includes things like pasteurization and homogenization, but at home I simply take a gallon of cow milk, add a little of lactic acid bacteria (Streptococcus lactis), and let it sit for a day and night at room temperature.  During this time, the milk is being fermented by the naturally occurring lactic acid-producing bacteria in the milk. This starts the butter churning process and fat from cream with a lower pH will coalesce more readily than that from fresh cream. The acidic environment also helps to prevent potentially harmful microorganisms from growing, increasing shelf-life (which I am not too worried about since it does not last long in our family).

Now, going back to the purpose of this blog, I'd like to mention a couple more things about the lactic acid bacteria (LAB).   These bacteria, usually found in decomposing plants and lactic products, produce lactic acid as the major metabolic end-product of carbohydrate fermentation.  It is also a probiotic, which is believed to be beneficial to the gut ecosystem of humans and other animals.

Buttermilk has also a lot of culinary benefits, and can act as leaven in baking, and can even tenderize meat but this is probably beyond the scope of this article.  After all this is a biology, not a culinary blog.

I should think of something more interesting next time:-)

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Some details for this article are taken from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactic_acid_bacteria