The Tangy Dairy Addition That Makes Milkshakes Extra Creamy

Move over, malt; there's another milkshake upgrade on the table. Adding buttermilk to your homemade milkshakes makes them thicker, creamier, and a bit tangy. Traditionally, buttermilk is the liquid left over from when cream is churned into butter, hence the name. But most of the buttermilk you'll find in the supermarket today is cultured milk, which is just milk that has been fermented with good bacteria, like yogurt. The fermentation process curdles the proteins in the milk, creating that thicker, creamier texture.

The rich texture and tart flavors add a delicious cheesecake-like quality to any milkshake. To make one, all you have to do is blend all of your favorite milkshake ingredients, but swap the regular milk for buttermilk. The slightly sour buttermilk flavor tends to pair well with extra-sweet fruits like strawberries and peaches. You can also highlight buttermilk's tangy flavor with citrus like lemon. Desserts like sweet lassis with mango and red velvet cake can be made with buttermilk, so they're the perfect inspiration for buttermilk milkshake flavors. Even ice cream flavors like chocolate and caramel are great pairings.

If you want to take your milkshakes up another notch, you can make homemade ice cream with buttermilk. Buttermilk doesn't completely replace all of the usual dairy products in ice cream, so you'll still need some combination of heavy cream, buttermilk, sugar, salt, and eggs. To prevent curdling your ice cream, Salt & Straw co-founder Tyler Malek suggests adding the buttermilk as the last ingredient just before you begin churning. 

Some buttermilk ice creams can be made with buttermilk powder instead, if you have some on hand. Kefir is also a worthy substitute for buttermilk, and if you're a big fan of the tangy flavor, you can also try making ice cream with sour cream.

If you don't want to make ice cream at home, you can find buttermilk ice cream in supermarkets, specialty stores, or online. Salt & Straw scoop shops have had seasonal buttermilk flavors over the years. You can also try blackberry and buttermilk ice cream from Crank & Boom, the Buttermilk Berry Cornbread flavor from Van Leeuwen, or a strawberry buttermilk number from Jeni's.