No buttermilk for soda bread!

bluedolphin

I'm having difficulty tracking down buttermilk (living in the centre of London) to bake soda bread. I managed to find small 250ml cartons a-la cream, but the trek to that particular supermarket isn't worth the hassle. I'm just wondering is there any substitute I could use without affecting the final taste? Would souring milk with lemon be adequate? Thanks

olaola

Yep - sour your milk with lemon.

Xiney

I never buy buttermilk.

I just add a tbsp of white vinegar (NOT available in Irish shops, must be purchased from a polish or other eastern european shop - Irish malt vinegars impart too much taste) to a litre of regular milk and voila!

I'd say the same thing with lemon juice would work. Basically you're looking for something acidic to react with the rising agent.

Khannie

I've been baking a good bit of soda bread recently and using lemon juice in the milk. 3 dessert spoons of lemon juice to 250ml of milk is what has worked best for me. You need to bump the amount of bread soda slightly too (versus using soured milk).

hem

I use regular milk and cream of tartar

Khannie

Oh, you can use "cream of tartar" to sour the milk too. Most supermarkets here have that for sale. Wouldn't imagine it's much different in the UK.

edit: Beaten to it by a whisker