Buttermilk substitutes
Buttermilk substitutes — 5 options, ranked, with the exact amount
Also called cultured buttermilk, buttermilk powder, sour milk, low-fat buttermilk
Use Milk + lemon juice or vinegar
1 cup milk + 1 tbsp acid for every 1 cup buttermilk
Buttermilk is doing two jobs: it is acid that fires the baking soda, and it is thin liquid. Stir 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar into a scant cup of milk, wait 5-10 minutes until it looks slightly curdled, and use it exactly like buttermilk. That covers almost every recipe.
- Verdict —
- Tweak it
- The tweak —
- Stir once and leave it 5-10 minutes at room temperature until it thickens slightly and the surface looks grainy and just-curdled; that visible change is the acid working.
- Best for —
- any recipe leavened with baking soda
- Pantry —
- Likely in your cupboard
Checked 22 Jul 2026 · no sponsored swaps
But first: what’s the buttermilk doing?
Pick your caseDoes your recipe contain baking soda?
The acid is load-bearing and you must replace it. Soured milk is the answer: 1 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar in a scant cup of milk. Plain milk on its own is not a substitute here — with nothing to react with, the soda does not make gas and it leaves a soapy taste.
Notes on milk + lemon juice or vinegar or plain yogurt + milk · Full guide: Baking
1 cup milk + 1 tbsp acid per 1 cup buttermilk
You have room to move. Thinned plain yogurt, kefir or thinned sour cream all work, and any of them gives a richer result than buttermilk because they carry more fat.
Notes on kefir, plain yogurt + milk or sour cream + milk
Same amount
The job here is mild acid plus salt over hours, and the mixture only has to be pourable. Soured milk works, thinned yogurt works, and plain milk with a squeeze of lemon works. This is the most forgiving use on the page.
Notes on milk + lemon juice or vinegar or plain yogurt + milk · Full guide: Fried chicken
1 cup milk + 1 tbsp acid per 1 cup buttermilk
You are tasting it directly, so use a cultured dairy: kefir or thinned plain yogurt. A vinegar-and-milk mix tastes of the vinegar when nothing cooks it off.
Check one thing before you choose: does the ingredient list say baking soda? If it does, the buttermilk is there to be an acid, and your swap must be acidic — soured milk, kefir or thinned yogurt, never plain milk. If the recipe uses baking powder instead, the acid is already in the powder and you are only replacing tang and liquid, so anything cultured and pourable will do. And whatever you use, thin it until it pours like milk.
Buttermilk is soured milk, around pH 4.4-4.6. That acid is what reacts with baking soda to make the gas that lifts a pancake or a biscuit, it tenderises by loosening gluten and by helping break down protein in a chicken brine, and it adds a tang you can taste. It is also thin and low in fat, which is why thick yogurt has to be watered down before it can stand in.
Moisture & hydrationprimary
It is the recipe's thin liquid, about 90% water, so it hydrates the flour; swap in something thick and the batter goes stiff and the biscuits come out squat.
Acidprimary
At around pH 4.5 it reacts with baking soda to release carbon dioxide the moment they meet, and that gas is the entire rise in a soda-leavened pancake or biscuit.
Aroma & flavor identitysecondary
The bacteria produce diacetyl, the same compound that makes butter smell buttery, which is the tang you notice in ranch dressing and in a good buttermilk biscuit.
Every option, one card
Ranked · per 1 cup buttermilk| # | Substitute | Instead of 1 cup buttermilk | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Milk + lemon juice or vinegarany recipe leavened with baking soda | 1 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar, topped up to the 1-cup line with milkTweak it | Tweak it |
| 2 | Kefirwhen you want a true one-for-one pour with no mixing | 1 cup plain unsweetened kefirWorks | Works |
| 3 | Plain yogurt + milkwhen you have yogurt but no lemon or vinegar | ¾ cup plain yogurt whisked with ¼ cup milkTweak it | Tweak it |
| 4 | Sour cream + milkwhen you want the richest crumb of any option here | ¾ cup sour cream whisked with ¼ cup milkTweak it | Tweak it |
| 5 | Buttermilk powder + waterwhen you bake with buttermilk often enough to stop buying cartons | 4 tablespoons buttermilk powder whisked into 1 cup waterWorks | Works |
| Not a swap | Plain milk | not a swap — 1 cup milk + 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar — the acid is not optionalNot for this | Not for this |
Milk + lemon juice or vinegar
sharper and more one-note than real buttermilk
The standard fix, and genuinely the right answer for anything with baking soda in it.
- Covers
- Moisture & hydration
- Acid
- Misses
- Aroma & flavor identity — not covered
- Amount
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar, topped up to the 1-cup line with milk for 1 cup buttermilk
- Then
- stir once and leave it 5-10 minutes at room temperature until it thickens slightly and the surface looks grainy and just-curdled; that visible change is the acid working
- Best for
- any recipe leavened with baking soda, pancakes, waffles and biscuits, chicken marinades
- Taste
- sharper and more one-note than real buttermilk, which is rounder and more buttery; in a baked recipe the difference disappears
- Texture
- very slightly thinner, so pancake batter spreads a little more in the pan
- Look
- the mixture looks lumpy and separated in the jug — that is correct, not spoiled; the finished pancakes rise the same and brown the same
- Prep
- Stir once and leave it 5-10 minutes at room temperature until it thickens slightly and the surface looks grainy and just-curdled; that visible change is the acid working.
- Pantry
- Likely in your cupboard
- Contains
- dairy
- Measure the acid into the cup first, then add milk to the line, so you end up with 1 cup of liquid rather than 1 cup plus a tablespoon.
- Whole milk gives the closest result; skim works and gives a slightly leaner crumb.
- Use white vinegar or lemon juice, not balsamic or cider vinegar — those are darker and carry their own flavour into a pale batter.
- With plant milk, use soy: its protein curdles like dairy. Almond and oat milk sour without thickening, which still fires the soda but stays thin.
Cream of tartar works the same way if you have no lemon or vinegar: 1 ¾ teaspoons whisked into 1 cup of milk. Whisk it into a splash of the milk first or it stays in lumps.
Do not use it uncooked in a dressing or dip; without heat, the raw vinegar or lemon reads through.
Kefir
slightly more sour and a touch yeasty
Cultured, pourable, and about as acidic as buttermilk — the one swap on this page that needs nothing done to it.
- Covers
- Moisture & hydration
- Acid
- Aroma & flavor identity
- Amount
- 1 cup plain unsweetened kefir for 1 cup buttermilk
- Best for
- when you want a true one-for-one pour with no mixing, dressings and dips where the tang is tasted raw, soda-leavened batters
- Taste
- slightly more sour and a touch yeasty, closer to real buttermilk than any milk-and-vinegar mix
- Texture
- the same pourable thickness
- Look
- no visible difference in the batter or the finished bake
- Prep
- Use 1 cup plain unsweetened kefir.
- Contains
- dairy
- Buy plain and unsweetened; flavoured kefir carries a lot of added sugar and will over-brown a pancake.
- Shake it before pouring — kefir separates in the bottle.
Kefir is fermented with a wider set of cultures than buttermilk, which is where the faintly yeasty note comes from. In a baked recipe it is indistinguishable.
Plain yogurt + milk
creamier and rounder, a little less sharp
Cultured, so the tang is real — but it has to be thinned, and how much depends on how thick your yogurt is.
- Covers
- Moisture & hydration
- Acid
- Aroma & flavor identity
- Amount
- ¾ cup plain yogurt whisked with ¼ cup milk (use ½ cup yogurt + ½ cup milk if it is thick Greek yogurt) for 1 cup buttermilk
- Then
- whisk until it pours off the spoon in a smooth stream rather than dropping in blobs; that pourable state is what you are aiming for, not a fixed ratio
- Best for
- when you have yogurt but no lemon or vinegar, cakes and muffins, where the extra fat helps, marinades
- Texture
- richer and denser from the extra fat; muffins are moister, biscuits marginally less flaky
- Look
- the batter is thicker and holds its shape more, so pancakes come out taller with less spread
- Prep
- Whisk until it pours off the spoon in a smooth stream rather than dropping in blobs; that pourable state is what you are aiming for, not a fixed ratio.
- Pantry
- Likely in your cupboard
- Contains
- dairy
- Thin to pouring consistency by eye. Regular yogurt usually needs about ¼ cup milk per ¾ cup; strained Greek yogurt needs roughly equal parts.
- Use plain, unsweetened, unflavoured yogurt. Vanilla yogurt adds sugar the recipe has not accounted for.
- Whole-milk yogurt makes a richer, slightly denser crumb than buttermilk; that is usually an improvement in cake and a small loss in biscuits.
Water works instead of milk if that is what you have, and costs you a little richness. It does not change the acid, which is the part that matters for the soda.
Do not use it unthinned. Straight yogurt is several times thicker than buttermilk and will leave you with dough where you wanted batter.
Sour cream + milk
noticeably richer, with the same tang
Cultured cream at about 18-20% fat, so the acid is right and the richness is well above buttermilk's.
- Covers
- Moisture & hydration
- Acid
- Aroma & flavor identity
- Amount
- ¾ cup sour cream whisked with ¼ cup milk for 1 cup buttermilk
- Then
- whisk until smooth and pourable; sour cream lumps if you tip all the milk in at once, so add half, smooth it out, then add the rest
- Best for
- when you want the richest crumb of any option here, coffee cake, pound cake and quick breads, when sour cream is what is open in the fridge
- Texture
- the softest, most tender crumb of anything on this page
- Look
- a slightly darker, more golden bake and a tighter, more velvety crumb when you cut it
- Prep
- Whisk until smooth and pourable; sour cream lumps if you tip all the milk in at once, so add half, smooth it out, then add the rest.
- Pantry
- Likely in your cupboard
- Contains
- dairy
- Thin it further, up to about ½ cup milk per ¾ cup sour cream, if the batter looks stiff — buttermilk is much thinner than this mixture starts out.
- Because it brings roughly 30 g of extra fat per cup compared with buttermilk, consider cutting the recipe's butter or oil by about 1 tablespoon in a delicate cake.
Crème fraîche behaves the same way and is milder; thin it the same amount.
Too rich for a fried-chicken brine, where you want a thin liquid that drains off before the flour goes on.
Buttermilk powder + water
the same tang as fresh buttermilk
The real thing, dried. It keeps for months in the pantry, which is the whole reason to own it.
- Covers
- Moisture & hydration
- Acid
- Aroma & flavor identity
- Amount
- 4 tablespoons buttermilk powder whisked into 1 cup water for 1 cup buttermilk
- Then
- for baking, whisk the dry powder into the recipe's flour and add the water with the wet ingredients — that avoids lumps entirely
- Best for
- when you bake with buttermilk often enough to stop buying cartons, any soda-leavened recipe, ranch and buttermilk dressings
- Texture
- very slightly thinner than fresh
- Look
- no visible difference
- Prep
- For baking, whisk the dry powder into the recipe's flour and add the water with the wet ingredients — that avoids lumps entirely.
- Pantry
- Special trip
- Contains
- dairy
- Check your tin — 3 to 4 tablespoons per cup is the usual range, and brands differ.
- Whisk the powder into a little of the water first if you are not adding it via the flour, or it clumps.
This is dried cultured buttermilk, not the sweet dried whey sold as milk powder. Powdered whole milk plus lemon juice is a different thing and belongs with the soured-milk row above.
Plain milk
flat and slightly soapy or metallic where unreacted baking soda is left behind
Listed because it is the most common mistake on this page. Milk is the liquid part of buttermilk with the acid taken out, and the acid is the working part.
- Covers
- Moisture & hydration
- Misses
- Acid — not covered
- Aroma & flavor identity — not covered
- Amount
- 1 cup milk + 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar — the acid is not optional for 1 cup buttermilk
- Best for
- nothing leavened with baking soda
- Texture
- dense and heavy — pancakes come out like thin discs of cooked batter
- Look
- the batter barely bubbles when it hits the pan, the pancakes stay flat, and biscuits come out squat with a yellowish tinge on the crumb
- Pantry
- Likely in your cupboard
- Contains
- dairy
- Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar per cup and wait 5 minutes. That is the whole fix and it takes no extra shopping.
- If you genuinely have no acid at all, swap the leavening instead: replace each ½ teaspoon of baking soda with 2 teaspoons of baking powder and use plain milk.
Plain milk is a good substitute in a recipe that uses baking powder only, because baking powder already contains its own acid. Check the ingredient list before you decide.
There is no amount of plain milk that replaces buttermilk in a soda-leavened recipe.
Don’t swap it here
4 cases- A soda-leavened batter — pancakes, biscuits, soda bread, most chocolate cake — with plain milk and no added acid.Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar per cup of milk and wait 5 minutes. Or leave the milk plain and replace each ½ teaspoon of baking soda with 2 teaspoons of baking powder.
- Straight thick Greek yogurt or sour cream, spooned in where the recipe says a cup of buttermilk.Thin it until it pours off the spoon in a stream — roughly equal parts Greek yogurt and milk, or ¾ cup regular yogurt to ¼ cup milk.
- A cold, uncooked use — ranch dressing, buttermilk dip, a chilled soup — with the vinegar-and-milk mix.Use kefir or thinned plain yogurt, which are actually cultured, or thin sour cream with milk and a squeeze of lemon.
- SafetyAny tested recipe for canning, pickling or fermenting that specifies buttermilk or a set acid.Follow the tested recipe exactly and use the acid it names. See the safety note below.
Safety
2 notes- Canning
Do not substitute buttermilk, soured milk or any other acid into a tested recipe for canning, pickling, fermenting or curing. The measured acidity of those recipes is what keeps them safe, and swapping acids changes it. Follow the tested recipe exactly.
Source — National Center for Home Food Preservation (opens in a new tab)
- Allergen
Buttermilk, kefir, yogurt and sour cream are all dairy. For a dairy-free version, sour soy milk with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice per cup — soy protein curdles and thickens like dairy, while almond and oat milk sour without thickening (see vegan buttermilk).
If it went wrong
3 fixes- The milk and vinegar mixture looks curdled and lumpy and you think you have ruined it.Nothing has gone wrong. Acid makes milk protein clump, and that visible curdling is the reaction you wanted.Stir it and use it. Real cultured buttermilk looks slightly lumpy too.
- The pancakes came out flat and taste faintly soapy or metallic.There was baking soda in the batter and no acid to react with it, so no gas formed and raw soda was left in the crumb.You cannot save the cooked ones. For the rest of the batter, stir in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar per cup of milk you used and cook a test pancake — it should bubble at the edges within a few seconds.
- The batter is far too thick to pour and you used yogurt.The yogurt was not thinned enough; Greek yogurt is several times thicker than buttermilk.Whisk in milk 1 tablespoon at a time until the batter falls off the spoon in a ribbon. Adding liquid at this stage is safe; the acid ratio barely moves.
Measure it
6 measures- 1 cup buttermilk240 ml = about 245 gSold in the US in 1-pint (2-cup) and 1-quart (4-cup) cartons.
- Buttermilk acidityabout pH 4.4-4.6, roughly 0.8% lactic acidThat is well inside the range that reacts fully with baking soda.
- Acid needed to sour milk1 tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar per 1 cup milkOr 1 ¾ tsp cream of tartar per cup. Rest 5-10 minutes.
- Buttermilk fatusually 1-2% fatCultured buttermilk is a low-fat milk. Sour cream (18-20%) and whole-milk yogurt (3-4%) are both richer, which is why they need thinning and why they bake softer.
- Buttermilk powder4 tbsp powder + 1 cup water = 1 cup buttermilkCheck the tin; some brands specify 3 tablespoons.
- Soda to powder conversion½ tsp baking soda + 1 cup buttermilk = 2 tsp baking powder + 1 cup plain milkThe route to take when you have neither buttermilk nor any acid in the house.
Questions
6 questionsCan I use milk with lemon juice instead of buttermilk?
Yes, and for baking it is the best answer on this page. Put 1 tablespoon of lemon juice in a measuring cup, top it up to the 1-cup line with milk, stir and leave it 5-10 minutes until it thickens slightly and looks curdled. White vinegar works identically. Use it exactly as the recipe uses buttermilk. The only place it falls short is an uncooked dressing, where the raw acid tastes through.
What is the difference between buttermilk and regular milk?
Buttermilk has been fermented, so it is acidic — around pH 4.4-4.6, against about pH 6.7 for milk — and slightly thicker. That acid is the point. It reacts with baking soda to produce the gas that lifts pancakes and biscuits, and it tenderises. Milk does neither of those things, which is why milk on its own is not a substitute in a recipe containing baking soda.
Can I use yogurt instead of buttermilk?
Yes, thinned. Yogurt is cultured, so the acid is genuine, but it is much thicker than buttermilk and will stiffen your batter if you use it straight. Whisk ¾ cup regular plain yogurt with ¼ cup milk, or roughly equal parts if it is thick Greek yogurt, until it pours off the spoon in a stream. Use plain and unsweetened. The bake comes out slightly richer and more tender than with buttermilk.
What can I use if I have no buttermilk, no lemon and no vinegar?
Two routes. If you have cream of tartar, whisk 1 ¾ teaspoons into 1 cup of milk. If you have none of those, keep the plain milk and change the leavening instead: replace each ½ teaspoon of baking soda in the recipe with 2 teaspoons of baking powder, which contains its own acid. The rise will be slightly less lofty and the flavour less tangy, but the recipe will work.
Does buttermilk actually tenderise fried chicken?
It helps, mostly through mild acid and salt working over several hours rather than through any dramatic breakdown. For that job almost anything acidic and pourable does the same work: soured milk, thinned yogurt, or kefir. This is the most forgiving use of buttermilk there is, so use whatever you have and give it at least four hours in the fridge.
Is powdered buttermilk the same as powdered milk?
No. Buttermilk powder is dried cultured buttermilk and it is acidic, so 4 tablespoons in 1 cup of water genuinely replaces buttermilk, including in soda-leavened recipes. Ordinary dry milk powder is not acidic — reconstitute it and you have milk, so you still need to add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar per cup.
Tips for substituting buttermilk
7 tips- Look for baking soda in the ingredient list first. If it is there, your buttermilk swap has to be acidic or the recipe will not rise.
- To sour milk: put 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar in the measuring cup, top up to 1 cup with milk, and leave it 5-10 minutes.
- It is supposed to look curdled. Lumpy soured milk is the reaction working, not milk going off.
- Thin yogurt or sour cream until it pours off the spoon in a ribbon — roughly equal parts Greek yogurt and milk.
- For uncooked uses like ranch dressing, use kefir or thinned yogurt; a vinegar-and-milk mix tastes of raw vinegar when nothing cooks it off.
- No acid in the house at all? Use plain milk and swap the leavening: 2 teaspoons baking powder in place of each ½ teaspoon baking soda.
- Freeze leftover buttermilk in a muffin tray, about ¼ cup per cup, then bag the pucks — it separates on thawing but whisks back together fine for baking.
Scale it
Scale a swap to your recipe, or convert cups to grams.
Source — National Center for Home Food Preservation (opens in a new tab)