What do you do with the liquid left after butter?

[Skandi]

Question; I'm sure somebody will enlighten my ignorance!

When you have made butter (from cream) the liquid left over looks a little like skimmed milk, is it? and if not what do you do with it? I don't want to throw it away.

[Birka]

Question; I'm sure somebody will enlighten my ignorance!

When you have made butter (from cream) the liquid left over looks a little like skimmed milk, is it? and if not what do you do with it? I don't want to throw it away.

Isn't that called butter milk?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttermilk

[Skandi]

Almost but not quite, mine isn't fermented, still wouldn't know what to do with it though.

[Frigga]

If it's raw buttermilk, I believe that you could allow it to sit out at room temperature for a few hours, and it will naturally sour. You could then use it like regular buttermilk. In the future, if you want to save this buttermilk, I suggest starting with cultured cream, like piima, or creme fraiche, or take raw cream, and leave it out at room temperature for about 8 hours. Cultured butter is supposed to taste heavenly. If it's pasturized, I'm less certain of what you can do with it.

[Birka]

I remember my grandmother having raw buttermilk sitting around in an old crock container. I guess that she was letting it "sour".