[Sca-cooks] Buttermilk?

[Susan Fox]

On 5/29/14, 8:52 AM, Donna Green wrote:
> Can any of you think of any period recipes that call for buttermilk? ... not the stuff in the carton in US grocery stores ... the liquid left over from the butter making process. I re-use small amounts of the buttermilk for the next batch of butter and have used it as a culture in my cheesemaking, but before I take the accumulated excess and make a batch of oatmeal pancakes, I thought I'd ask if there was a period use for it. Don't worry, there will also be pancakes :-)
>
> Oh, and Stefan ... as my mother in law says, eat more lamb, fifty million American coyotes can't be wrong :-)
>
> Juana Isabella
> West

The Irish used buttermilk extensively, and still do in potatoes and soda 
bread.

Oatmeal
http://www.libraryireland.com/SocialHistoryAncientIreland/III-XVII-6.php
"For the poorer classes stirabout was made on water or buttermilk, and 
eaten with sour milk or salt butter."  That's from Brehon Law, I seem to 
recall.

Fabric bleach
http://www.libraryireland.com/Belfast-History/Linen.php
"Up to the year 1770, linen was bleached with buttermilk, and nothing 
else was used. At Malone no buttermilk could be bought, as it all went 
to the bleach greens."  Acid content, in a land with no handy citrus 
trees.  :-)

Much agreed about Lamb.  My family recipe involves studding a legolam 
with garlic cloves and candied ginger, then marinating and basting with 
nasty cheap red wine during a long slow roast.  Must be nasty, must be 
cheap, because it's the tannins that do the biochemical magic.  Egri 
Bikavr or Two Buck Chuck will do nicely.

Cheers,
Selene
Caid