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In the summer there are few drinks more refreshing than a glass of cold, slightly sour buttermilk. Unfortunately there are only few mountain huts left where fresh, homemade buttermilk is served.

Buttermilk, as the name already suggests, refers to the fact that buttermilk was once the watery end-product of butter making. Buttermilk is the fluid remaining when the fat is removed by churning cream into butter. Today cultured butter milk is prepared from skim or low-fat milk by fermentation with bacteria that produces lactic acid which gives the milk a slightly sour taste. The resulting product is thicker than traditional butter milk.

Although name implies that buttermilk is high in fat, its not. Modern buttermilk is made from low-fat or skim milk and has less than 1 percent fat while still containing all the important vitamins and minerals of whole milk: vitamin A and D3, potassium, phosphor and calcium which is helps keeping your bones strong.

A glass of buttermilk always is a healthy choice for those watching their caloric and/or fat intake. Buttermilk is excellent in baked goods, and also as a soup and salad dressing base. It lends a rich, hearty flavor with fewer calories than milk or cream. The tangy flavor of buttermilk goes well with sweet fruits such as peaches, cherries, and pears, etc.
Below you will find two wonderful recipes:

Mrs. Ilse Kahlen from Hall i. Tirol sent us following delicious buttermilk soup recipe:
Boil ½l of water together with a pinch of caraway and salt. Mix 1l of buttermilk with 40 g of flour and pour mixture into the boiling water. Let boil down a bit and serve with croutons. Also tastes great when cold!

Mrs. Maria Drewes, a writer of classic Tirolean cookbooks, has following recipe for buttermilk dumplings with cherry puree.

Ingredients (serving 8): soak 6 sheets of gelatin in cold water. Buttermilk mousse: mix ½l of buttermilk with the juice and skins of 2 limes, 120g of powdered sugar and 1 vanilla pod. Squeeze the water out of the gelatin, dissolve in 3 spoonful of hot water and add to the buttermilk mixture. Whip 1/8l of cream and fold gently into the mixture. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for about 5 hours.

Cherry puree: bring to a boil 1/8l of red wine, 60g of sugar, 1 cinnamon bark, 1 clove and the skin of 1 lime. Mix ½ teaspoons of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of above mixture; add to the rest, boil down a bit and add 250g of stoned cherries.

Carefully place a portion of mousse in the center of the plate and, using a tablespoon, shape each into a dumpling shape. Crown the mousse dumplings with cherry puree.