>"jmcquown" writes:
>
>Michael wrote:
>> Wayne posted a recipe for a German chocolate cake
>> that I would like to try, but all they had at the
>> grocery store was big containers of buttermilk
>> and I didn't want to buy that much. Obviously I
>> could just use milk instead, but is there any
>> other common ingredient that I might add to this
>> to bring it closer to buttermilk? My base
>> ingredient will be 2% milk.
>>
>> Thank you, Michael
>
>There really isn't a *great* substitution. However, buttermilk usually
>keeps for a long time. I don't know what your interpretation of "big
>containers" is. I can use a quart of buttermilk fairly quickly but then
>again I like to bake cornbread.
>
>I tried the dry buttermilk powder years ago and it worked pretty well.

Becca's suggestion to use plain milk with a little vinegar will work perfectly
well for baking a cake... even with yogurt the cultures will be destroyed from
the heat of baking and there is no mouth feel involved other than that of the
solid cake... the only real reason for using buttermilk (or yogurt) in baking
is for increasing the acidity to give the leavener a boost, which is what the
vinegar achieves quite well (could just as easily use lemon juice except for
the flavor). The buttermilk in pancakes is to achieve a lighter/fluffier
product... plain milk with a little vinegar (as Becca suggests) will work as
well... and in fact is what's typically done at commercial bakeries, and they
use dry milk, and dry vinegar too.



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