Your Thanksgiving Needs More Buttermilk
I had a craving last night – a craving for the blue box. It was 10 pm and all of a sudden I needed a kraft paper pasta and cheese, so I boiled in a saucepan and tossed my elbows into the swirling liquid.
When they were al dente, I added butter and a bright orange powder and then opened the refrigerator to take milk. My whole milk was in the back of the fridge, behind a lot of things, but you know what was right in front? Buttermilk, and that was a stroke of luck, because buttermilk is even better in pasta and cheese than whole milk (or “sweet milk” as my grandmother called it).
I doubt many of you will be serving up craft at Thanksgiving dinner – although, if so, it’s iconic – but you can use buttermilk in almost every side dish to make it a little better. Usually, if a recipe calls for “regular” milk, use buttermilk instead.
As I’ve said about 200 times before, Thanksgiving is a salt and fat-based meal, and adding acid is the only way to balance it out. (Don’t believe me? Trust Samin Nosrat , Our Lady of Balanced Tastes.)
Instead of soaking the filling bread in whole milk, soak it in buttermilk; Whisk the buttermilk instead of adding whole milk to the puree; Use buttermilk instead of whole milk for the base of your green bean casserole. I think you can see a pattern here.
The only time I would not recommend replacing 1: 1 whole milk with buttermilk is in baked goods, as changing pH can affect some desserts. In addition to this caution, replace and replace! Then you can start adding it to things that don’t need dairy at all. Add a little to the turkey sauce for a creamy and light finish, or add a small scoop to a salad dressing. However, I wouldn’t add it to your cranberry sauce; it’s too far, even for me.