We described the characteristics of buttermilk in our previous article. Most important is that it is more acidic than ordinary milk and that helps things like pancakes and biscuits rise nicely when they interact with baking powder and baking soda.

You can make your own buttermilk substitute by simply adding a tablespoon of white vinegar to milk to acidify it. It really works very well as you can see in the video below.

To summarize:

Buttermilk

• 1 cup milk (whole or 2% or skim all work)
• 1 Tb white vinegar

Biscuits

• 2 cups flour
• 1 Tb baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 6 tb unsalted butter
• 1 cup buttermilk (about)

Bake at 450˚F for 10 minutes.