Buttermilk and Beef Stock/Broth?

I've been in Japan and had a super-hard time finding Buttermilk! In fact, I never found it. I got a fantastic recipe for pancakes, but I really need buttermilk!! Do Japanese even produce it?

Also, I want to make some stew, but can't remember ever finding Beef or Chicken stock in stores. Anyplace to find this, too?

Thanks, my cooking troubles may be halved!

-Brandon

A lot of foreign material can be purchased at department stores. Otherwise, international supermarkets like National Azabu in Hiroo or FBC on-line shop has good selections.

As for buttermilk, the internet tells me that it can be replaced by plain yogurt or by mixing 1 tablespoon of vinegar per 1 cup of milk.

"Consome cube" are sold at any supermarket and usually consists of various animal stock and spices. But I usually just throw in a bone to get good stock, although beef bones and beef stock may be difficult to find due to the BSE issue.

Costco has canned chicken stock. its cheap there

I have made pancakes and crepes for more years than I care to remember and never used buttermilk, just plain milk. My mom had a great cook and that lady never used buttermilk either.

There's no buttermilk in New Zealand either and we manage to make crepes and pancakes!

I had heard about buttermilk all my life in books etc. and was very interested to finally try it when I went to the Netherlands. I was a bit disappointed to find that it was really just slightly sour milk...

In Japan beef stock is usually called bouillon- the katakana should be ƒuƒCƒˆƒ“. You should find it in most supermarkets.

In France they used to have--may be still have-- little cubes wrapped in paper and called "Bouillon KUB". Cooks used it to make beef stock or other stock. Bouillon is French for a liquid in which food as boiled while cooking. A broth in other words.

Maggi bouillon cubes (beef,chicken,fish,veg.) are available in most markets, swansons canned chicken broth is available at both costco and fbc. homemade is is best and not to difficult to make.
1 tablespoon of distilled vinegar or fresh lemon juice per cup of milk makes a good sub. for buttermilk.

I have to echo the other suggestions that you can simply add a bit of yogurt to get the taste and consistency you need for a buttermilk replacement in your pancakes. I have found vinegar to throw my recipes off just a little bit, so I would go for the yogurt.

As for those who make pancakes and crepes without buttermilk, yes many of us can do those and other versions as well. However, the person who started the thread wants to make a buttermilk pancake, which is one of tradtional versions of the pancake in the United States. It is a different taste and gives a different consistency to the pancake. One can also see this when they make a regular bisuit vs. a buttermilk biscuit for example. So yes, in his case, he needs buttermilk (or at least an accepatable substitute) in order to achieve the desired effect he's looking for. He shouldn't be criticized for simply trying to find buttermilk for a recipe that actually calls for it.

Nobody criticised him, just pointed out that it is possible to make pan cakes without buttermilk..

Buttermilk Substitutes
Published May 1, 2005.

Can yogurt or milk be substituted for buttermilk?

While we try to keep a carton of buttermilk in the back of the refrigerator, it keeps for ages, there are those days when we run out and really need it for a batch of pancakes or biscuits. Can yogurt or milk serve as a suitable substitute?


Yogurt
To find out if there is a simple conversion for replacing buttermilk with yogurt, we went into the test kitchen and cooked up our recipes for Tall and Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits, Best Buttermilk Waffles, and Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes.

At first we tried simply substituting equal amounts of plain whole-milk yogurt for buttermilk. The resulting biscuits and waffles were a bit dense and dry, and the mashed potatoes were somewhat stiff. To improve the texture, we next thinned the yogurt with milk, using 3 parts yogurt to 1 part milk. While the yogurt-based biscuits and waffles were slightly less tangy than the buttermilk versions, tasters found that thinned yogurt (whole-milk or low-fat) was a perfectly acceptable substitution. (Avoid nonfat yogurt; it produced biscuits and waffles that were too dry.)

The mashed potatoes were a different story. While their consistency remained the same with yogurt, the lack of the buttermilk's tang was noticeable in this savory dish. Our advice? For baked goods, a mixture of 3 parts plain whole-milk or low-fat yogurt to 1 part milk can be swapped for buttermilk (that translates to 3/4 cup yogurt plus 1/4 cup milk to replace 1 cup buttermilk). For savory recipes, stick with the real thing.

Milk
Regular milk can be "clabbered" with an acidic ingredient such as lemon juice, vinegar, or cream of tartar; the acid will react with baking soda to produce leavening and will approximate the tang of buttermilk in most pancake batters and baked goods. For 1 cup of milk, simply add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, white vinegar, or cream of tartar and let the milk stand for about 10 minutes. This milk will be similar to buttermilk in sourness and acid content, but it will not be as thick.

Note: Lemon juice is our first choice; some sensitive tasters detected off flavors from vinegar and cream of tartar.

wds,

please cite your post.

Thanks,
admin

Cook's Illustrated !

No surprise there, if you are familiar with the magazine, their style is unmistakeable.

It might also be possible to order powdered buttermilk from FBC.

Sira, I am surprised that New Zealand doesn't have buttermilk, Australia has it. Do you have any idea why New Zealand does not?

Possibly it's available, but it certainly isn't a common ingredient in NZ home cooking. As I said above, I had never tried it until I went to the Netherlands at age about 26. We certainly don't lack for other milk products- NZ produces so much milk that over 90% of it is exported. I have a lot of relatives in Australia and visit often, and I was under the impression that it isn't all that commonly used in cooking there either.

I think for both countries it is because buttermilk isn't widely used in the UK either, and this is where our traditional cooking style came from (meaning I grew up eating meat and 3 veg and little else for dinner (-o-;)).

I don't know why buttermilk is much more common in the States- maybe the tradition was brought over from other European countries.

add 1 tsp of vinneger to 1 cup of milk, works great in place of buttermilk

can "nomu yoguruto" (drinkable yogurt)be used instead of buttermilk?

Kinokuniya sells buttermilk powder. That should work for baking and confectionary use.

http://netsuper.rakuten.co.jp/kinokuniya/w_sku_syosai.php?i_syosai_typ...

note that real buttermilk may be a substitute for some recipes, but for many others it cannot be substituted. buttermilk contains bacteria that is essential to the proper forming of certain recipes - for example cheeses and some types of cakes.

i've never found buttermilk in a normal supermarket in japan but you can order it online direct from dairies in tohoku and hokkaido. it's expensive and most places sell it in industrial quantities but you might be able to find smaller quantities (though it will still be expensive).

You can get powdered buttermilk from Cuoca. I have not seen fresh buttermilk in Japan. I have no idea about beef stock. I order the chicken bones from The meat guy and make my own chicken stock.
http://www.cuoca.com/index.html
http://www.themeatguy.jp/