12 Recipes for Leftover Buttermilk

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Buttermilk pouring into a bowl of flour mixture.

So you bought buttermilk to make a particular recipe, and you used that cup, and now…you have the rest of the container and need to use it up! You’re not going to throw it away, oh no, not you — you’re not a wasteful person. But what else to use it in? Luckily, it’s incredibly versatile. There are lots of ways to use up leftover buttermilk.

Buttermilk is particularly great in pancakes, biscuits, creamy salad dressings, cornbread, banana bread, cakes, Irish soda bread, and lots of baked goods. You can substitute buttermilk for milk (and other dairy products) in many baking recipes with a 1:1 ratio. It works best if there is at least 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda in the recipe. If there is only baking powder, you can replace 1/2 teaspoon of the baking powder with baking soda, and then use your buttermilk instead of milk.

Leftover buttermilk can be frozen in an airtight container for up to 3 months.

Read on for ways to use leftover buttermilk before it goes bad!

At some point we all end up with extra buttermilk and don’t want to throw it out! Here are 12 recipes to make use of leftover buttermilk, from biscuits to cornbread to salad dressing.

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12 Leftover Buttermilk Recipes

Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Biscuits
5 from 2 votes

Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Biscuits

Homemade light and flaky biscuits are so easy to make, and you can make the dough ahead of time! Biscuits are one of the best leftover buttermilk uses of all time.
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Two plates of Slivered Wedge Salad with Buttermilk Dressing and Bacon.
5 from 1 vote

Slivered Wedge Salad with Buttermilk Dressing and Bacon

This is more of a "wedge" salad than a wedge salad, if you will. All of those amazing flavors and textures, but a bit easier to eat.
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Creamy Corn and Potato Salad with Bacon and Lemon Buttermilk Dressing
5 from 4 votes

Creamy Corn and Potato Salad with Bacon and Lemon Buttermilk Dressing

The creaminess of the potatoes is punctuated by the pop of the crispy corn and crumbled bacon.
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Homemade Ranch Dressing
5 from 3 votes

Homemade Ranch Dressing

The classic dressing we all crave: creamy, tangy, and perfectly seasoned. A perfect way to use up buttermilk.
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Late Summer Cobb Salad topped with bacon, red onion, crumbled cheese, and other toppings.
5 from 3 votes

Late Summer Cobb Salad

The salad to keep up with the end-of-summer influx of produce.
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Cheddar cornbread in cast iron pan
5 from 1 vote

Cheddar Cornbread

Cornbread is almost always the perfect wingman for soup.
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White cast iron pan of cornbread.
5 from 4 votes

Easy Cornbread

This simple cornbread takes all of 10 minutes to get into the oven, and it makes any meal just that much better. This might be one of my favorite buttermilk recipes – it's worth buying a quart just to have this cornbread in your future!
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Slice of Lemon Cake on a plate with raspberries.
5 from 4 votes

Lemon Cake

This is a nicely lemony lemon cake, just the right amount of sweet and with that wonderful sweet white icing that literally is the icing on the cake.
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Slices of Irish Soda Bread on a wooden board.
5 from 6 votes

Irish Soda Bread

Traditional Irish soda bread is a yeast-free quick bread, and it's hard to imagine a St. Patrick's Day spread without it. This recipe has body, richness, and just a touch of sweetness.
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Breakfast sandwich with Cooper cheese, avocado, tomato, egg, and ham.
5 from 1 vote

Best Biscuit Breakfast Sandwich

There are two things at the center of every great breakfast sandwich: eggs and melty, flavorful cheese.
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Best Easy Banana Bread
5 from 2 votes

Best Easy Banana Bread

Everyone's favorite baking project! Leftover bananas and leftover buttermilk mean you're on your way to a warm loaf of perfect, simple banana bread. Excellent for breakfast or snacking (or make muffins!)
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Cheddar Jalapeno Cornbread in a cast iron skillet.
5 from 1 vote

Cheddar Jalapeño Cornbread

Moist cornbread is layered with flavor from jalapeños, scallions, plus a generous amount of shredded cheese.
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About Katie Workman

Katie Workman is a cook, a writer, a mother of two, an activist in hunger issues, and an enthusiastic advocate for family meals, which is the inspiration behind her two beloved cookbooks, Dinner Solved! and The Mom 100 Cookbook.

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2 Comments

  1. I was hoping you have a recipe for use of bread,like buttermilk bread,the only bread that I get (2 loaves)from Kroger,it toasts very well, and has a buttery taste to it,That’s why I was wondering if you could make bread crumbs with it and use it as a coating for chicken and pork chops to give it a buttery taste to it.