The One Mistake That Can Ruin Your Homemade Buttermilk Ice Cream

The next time you're ready to craft a batch of buttermilk ice cream from scratch at home, note that there's one critical mistake you can make to instantly ruin it. It's also important to know what buttermilk is and how to cook with it. So be sure to stop what you're doing and first heed this timely advice from Tyler Malek, the co-founder and head ice cream maker of Salt & Straw. For those of you who don't know, Salt & Straw is a popular ice creamery from Portland, Oregon that's known for its unique ice cream flavors. 

As Malek explained, "Similar to yogurt, buttermilk can be a great ingredient in an ice cream base because it has a lot of its proteins and nutrients condensed. The tricky part with buttermilk is that the high-acidity can start to denature (curdle) the other dairy components in the recipe."

So while buttermilk is an excellent swap for other milk in homemade ice cream, it can curdle and make your ice cream chunky instead of smooth, and hence, undesirable. To remedy this, timing the addition of buttermilk to your ice cream base is crucial. Malek stated, "When using buttermilk, I like to add it at the very last minute right before loading into the ice cream machines so it doesn't have much time to interact with the rest of the dairy in the ice cream base."

Now that we know how to not make the mistake of curdling homemade ice cream, it's time to explore some recipes and put this tip to good work. Firstly, we have 27 ice cream recipes to satisfy any sweet cravings for you. Salt & Straw also announced its 5-Flavor holiday lineup, along with one brand new ice cream, so you can find inspiration there.

But if you still have trouble picking out one to try, start with our coffee gelato recipe. The tang and acidity in buttermilk will enhance the flavors in the coffee dessert. Just be sure to add buttermilk last when churning the base in the ice cream maker, as Tyler Malek explained. 

Buttermilk is a versatile and delicious ingredient worth stocking in our refrigerators and pantries. Aside from making delicious ice cream, here are 10 sweet and savory buttermilk recipes to try this week. We for sure will be making some delicious buttermilk blackberry scones to go with our buttermilk ice cream.