[upbeat music] - [Sheri] Buttermilk might seem old-fashioned, but this delicious dairy queen is enjoying a renaissance.

Using buttermilk in recipes works all sorts of culinary magic.

How about a seared buttermilk brine skirt steak served alongside a crisp wedge salad in a creamy buttermilk dressing?

And let's not forget the sweet side of things.

Buttermilk plays a delicious role in desserts, including my chocolate buttermilk pudding, topped with a dollop of buttermilk whipped cream.

And we are all about the cows.

[cows mooing] We head to the dairy with farmer Randy Lewis, who shows us how he makes his amazing, fresh buttermilk.

- We tell everybody that if you want to see what state of the art dairy facility looked like in 1960, you're right here at home.

[Sheri laughing] - Let's talk to my friend, Erika Council.

She is the bomb when it comes to baking buttermilk biscuits in a delicious way that you are going to love.

I'm gonna do whatever you did.

- Try to make it not too messy.

- If you tell me we're gonna stop and do a jig, I'm into it.

Whatever you say to do, I'm gonna do.

- [laughing] We'll wait to the end to do that.

- Okay.

[chuckles] I'm Sherry Castle.

I write cookbooks.

I write for food magazines.

I cook, I teach, and I collect stories, and my favorite stories are the ones behind our best-loved home recipes.

Is it time to shuck 'em?

- It's time to shuck 'em.

Cheers.

[upbeat music] - [Sheri] Oh, that's awesome.

I will go out and explore, from the ground up, the best ingredients that go into some of our most beloved family recipes.

It's all about the food, the flavors, and finding the key ingredient.

[upbeat music] Buttermilk is a beautifully-fermented marvel.

Back in the day, it was what was left behind after turning butter out of cultured cream.

Now it's made with cultures, and of course, fresh milk.

There's a man who loves to talk about this process, and his cows, and how they make some of the tastiest buttermilk around, Farmer Randy Lewis of Ran-Lew Dairy.

Hello there, it is such a pleasure to finally meet you.

Sheri Castle.

- I'm Randy Lewis.

It's nice to have you here, and appreciate you coming.

- I'm glad to be here.

So tell me, where are we?

- [Randy] Well, you're in downtown Eli Whitney, North Carolina right now.

- [Sheri] Eli Whitney, North Carolina.

And this is your family farm?

- This is the family farm.

Yes, ma'am.

I'm about fifth generation that's been here, I think, for sure, anyway.

- [Sheri] And I see cows, so I'm assuming that this is part of your dairy, but y'all raise other things too?

- [Randy] No, not right now.

Just all dairy cows.

- All dairy cows.

I don't know much about cows, but I know these aren't.

Tell me who these fine, fine- - Well, these are my two side kicks.

This is Lovely and Boudreaux.

They're my favorite buddies at the current time.

You can find me if you find them.

They're usually about three feet away.

- So now, from what I'm hearing, one of the things that makes this dairy special is you actually bottle your milk products here on the property.

Have I got that right?

- [Randy] Yes ma'am, we do.

We do.

- [Sheri] So let's talk about buttermilk.

I think a lot of people don't really understand what buttermilk is, so how do you describe it to somebody?

- [Randy] It is no longer the by-product of making butter.

When we first started, we investigated making butter, and selling it, and the inspectors told us that we couldn't do that.

The only way we could do it, you'd have to call it a cultured butter by-product drink, or something like that.

So buttermilk, as we know it today is not the bi-product of making butter.

We use whole milk.

We pasteurize it, and then we put a culture in it to, I guess, to get a desire, to get the desired result.

You want a consistent product all the time.

- And I think that's something else a lot of people don't understand is there's some really good for you, delicious, helpful, good for you, bacteria, and that's what you do want growing in your buttermilk.

- That's correct.

- It's also, and I can say that as a cook, that's what makes it act different from other kinds of dairy products in a recipe.

It's those magic cultures.

They are just culinary geniuses, every single one of 'em is.

- Well, we didn't know it either, I mean, this was, we had to do some research about that, 'cause we were, you know, we had orders for buttermilk we wasn't gonna be able to fill, and we were trying to figure out, well, will it work the same?

Does it grow off different?

I mean, we didn't know.

- See, that's what you get with farmers.

Farmers are always thinking.

You can't out-think a farmer.

Y'all thinking all the time how to make something work.

- Well, we ain't got no choice.

We're all poor.

[both laughing] - Too bad we were born brilliant instead of rich, right?

[laughing] - I told a lot of people it's a shame I was born not rich, and really good looking.

[laughing] [upbeat music] - [Sheri] All right, so where are we now?

- Well, this is where the whole process starts.

This is old dairy barn.

We tell everybody that if you, if you want to see what a state of the art dairy facility looked like in 1960, you're right here at home.

[Sheri laughs] - And so this is literally, you put a cow in each one of these, and hook 'em up, and you still, cows still are milked twice a day, right?

- [Randy] Yeah, we milk twice a day every day, holidays included.

- Do you have to train a cow to cooperate with this, or does this just come naturally to them?

- Well, a little of both.

A little of both.

We still feed a little grain in the barn, so they like to come in to eat.

We put head locks in outside, so they're used to sticking their head into something.

- And so after the milk goes, the milk then goes into where?

- It goes into the pipeline, and then it goes into the little room over there where it's pumped over into bulk tanks for refrigeration.

[upbeat music] Sheri, I'd like to introduce you to Taylor Hayes.

- Hey.

- Hey.

- This is my boss, and the bottling plant manager, so what she says, I do.

- So I know who to listen to now.

So you're gonna explain the bottling?

- Yes.

- And what did you just do to that buttermilk, right before it goes in the bottle?

- I just broke the buttermilk.

- And what does that mean?

- We cut, so the buttermilk just sat for 16 hours, and it's ready to be stirred up so that we can pump it through to go into a jug.

It's got some salt in it, and it's all ready to roll.

I've got your hairnets for you.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- We can get you set up to go inside.

- [Taylor] That's for your beard.

- Thank you so much.

- I gotta watch that.

- Put a couple of holes in the sides, put it over my ears, flip it under, and here I am.

- [Sheri] It smells like really good butter and cheese.

- We're gonna have you sample this buttermilk for me.

- I am proud and honored.

- Tell me if it's just- - Oh my goodness, look at that, it's so creamy, and it's got the bubbles on it.

It smells sweet, I mean, it's so, it's like, fresh dairy, obviously.

Oh, good land, that is delicious.

You know, I think the reason people think they don't like buttermilk is they've not had good buttermilk.

So this has got that whole milk sweetness, fullness.

It's a little tangy, almost lemony, or citrus-like.

- It's smooth.

I call it smooth.

It's just smoother.

- It is smooth, and it's because it's buttermilk, instead of curdled milk.

Those different things.

Nobody wants to drink curdled milk, but everybody with a lick of sense wants to drink this.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Thank you, I'm just gonna stand here, and watch you work now, while I drink my buttermilk.

- [Taylor] Here you go, back to work.

- All right, we'll all get back at it.

[upbeat music] - This skirt steak recipe is a fan favorite, and a family favorite too, and sure that meat is delicious, but this buttermilk brine is gonna sneak in, and steal the show.

[upbeat music] So this flavor-packed brine, you're gonna start the day before, and it all comes together in a baggie.

So we're gonna start with, of course, delicious buttermilk, and two that I'm gonna add the juice and zest of a lime.

I have brown sugar, salt, ground black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, Greek chili powder, and some smoked paprika.

Gonna wanna just take this, and massage it a little bit to help those spices dissolve, and get mixed in there, and then we're gonna add our skirt steak.

You know, skirt steak is a delicious cut of beef.

This is about two pounds, but this recipe is easy to scale to make a little more, or a little less.

Now, by putting it in the bag, it's keeping everything in one spot, and then again, give it a little shake to make sure that everything is equally coated.

You're gonna put this in the refrigerator overnight.

If you think of it, turn the bag once in a while to ensure that the steak stays submerged, but that's all you have to do.

Tomorrow, you're gonna come back and cook it.

So the overnight rest in this buttermilk brine has done a number of delicious things.

One is, it has given this steak lots of flavor from all of those aromatic spices, but the buttermilk is what is gonna make it tender and flavorful, because nothing does a better job of tenderizing meat than good, old-fashioned buttermilk.

So I've drained off the brine.

It's done its job.

We've discarded it, and we've blotted the meat dry, and now it goes into the skillet.

I've got this on medium-high heat, and I'm gonna add just a tiny bit of oil, just a few drops to avoid sticking.

You don't want to make the oil too deep, because we're searing the steak, not frying it.

Now, working in batches to avoid adding too many pieces of steak at one time, we're gonna lay this in the hot pan.

[meat sizzling] Hear that sound?

That's exactly what you want.

If you don't hear anything, your pan's not hot enough.

Searing is easy, because you really don't do anything other than put it in the pan, and then wait patiently for two or three minutes until it's beautifully brown on the bottom.

[meat sizzling] [upbeat music] So this steak is pretty evenly seared on both sides.

Every bit of the delicious brown residue that's built up while the meat was cooking is flavor-packed.

You don't want to waste a drop, so I like to take my tongs, and sort of mop the pan a little bit with the meat to soak up every bit of this delicious goody, and then we're gonna put it on a plate.

So one of the secrets to a great steak, no matter how you cook it, is to be patient, and let it rest for at least five minutes before you cut into it.

That gives it time to cool off, slow down, take a breath, and absorb the delicious juices, so that they stay in the steak instead of running out all over the plate.

Nothing goes with this steak better than a good salad, and this one features a dressing made with buttermilk.

And then we're gonna add a little bit of sour cream, some mayonnaise, zest and juice of a lime.

You'll always want to include that delicious zest, because that's where the flavor is.

Then we're gonna add some chopped jalapeno or serrano.

If you want to make it a little zippier, you leave in the seeds.

If you want to tame it down just a little bit, take those seeds out.

We have some chopped scallions, good, fresh garlic, salt, pepper, and then the two magic ingredients.

One is honey.

Now, the honey is not gonna make it sweet.

It's gonna balance everything.

It actually makes the savory ingredients taste even better.

And then one of my favorite ingredients ever, this is a green hot sauce.

It's milder than the red hot sauces.

It's almost fruity.

It's got some vinegar.

It is gonna tie all of this together, and I'm gonna give it a good shake, and then put in one last thing, some avocado.

All I did was peel and pit an avocado, and mash it up with a fork, and it goes right in the jar, and this dressing is ready to go.

[upbeat music] So we're starting with a good wedge of crisp iceberg lettuce.

Sometimes you need a good wedge of lettuce that can hold up all these delicious ingredients, and I'm gonna give it a generous drizzle of our avocado dressing, and then add some tomatoes, some beautiful, sweet red bell pepper, a little bit of onion, a touch more avocado, because, really, can you have too much avocado?

And if you're inclined, a generous sprinkle of some crisp, cooked bacon.

Now, all this plate needs is one of our steaks, and if you think it needs just a tiny bit more dressing, a little around on the sides, and there you have it.

That is a great supper, and you know why?

I used buttermilk, so I can't wait to taste this.

I'm going in for a bite of steak, a little bit of this dressing.

It's amazing what buttermilk does.

The meat is tender, it's full of flavor, it's juicy, it's tangy, it is everything all in one good bite.

I'm telling you, buttermilk is a steak's best friend.

[upbeat music] Who doesn't love a biscuit?

Buttermilk is a key ingredient to achieve goodness in this next recipe, with a baker who carries on a mighty strong cooking legacy, passed down from her legendary grandmothers.

- My name is Erika Council, and I'm originally from North Carolina, but I live now in Atlanta, Georgia.

I came here for work.

I didn't know a lot of people, but I always cooked Sunday dinner.

You know, you went to church, and then after church, you had dinner, but I always had biscuits.

They were always sort of the highlight.

My maternal grandmother, Geraldine or Deeny, she was very much church and civil rights.

Today is the day we're all gonna break bread.

You know, this is the day the Lord has made.

Mildred Council, Mama Dip, was my paternal grandmother.

She's my father's mother, and she owned a restaurant in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

She was a phenomenal human, not just in her community, but in her family.

I mean, she built the foundation for us all.

There was always a basket of bread, and those are the things like, I remember.

It's just like, every memory of sort of the African-American women in my life, there's some type of bread that's attributed to them.

[upbeat music] [knocking on door] - Hello!

How are you?

It's good to see you.

So the reason that I invited myself over today, and you so graciously agreed is, is I make biscuits, but you make biscuits.

Don't you make like, what, a thousand or 1500 a week?

- Yeah, we do, so we have a biscuit box delivery service.

It's always a half a dozen to a dozen biscuits.

We're making about a thousand a week.

- Let's make some biscuits together, and you see what I can pick up here.

- Yeah, well, I'm gonna see what I can pick up from you.

- Well, we'll see.

We'll take our chances to see what happens.

I'm a stickler, and I bet you are too.

You have to use real buttermilk.

You can't be curdling milk.

It's just not the same thing.

- IF You don't have buttermilk, you know, just use regular whole milk.

This is an all-purpose flour.

It's got about 11% protein.

- It also means we can roll in it, because a lot of people, when they're learning to make biscuits, maybe they're choosing to use self-rising, 'cause that's what their mama used, or what they learned, and you can't roll dough in self-rising flour.

- So in here we have salt, baking powder, and baking soda, and so we're adding baking soda, because if you want that nice, fluffy interior texture people consider a buttermilk biscuit to have, definitely need that baking soda to hit that acid in that buttermilk to give you that soft, and that high-rising buttermilk biscuits.

When I put the other dry ingredients in there, I like to whisk them in, you know, make sure it's all kind of broken in together, and- - Right, because you don't want one biscuit to have all the leavening, 'cause then you've got no good biscuits.

- You've got no good biscuits.

All right, so now we're gonna add in the fats, and so we've got a combination of unsalted butter here, and some regular Crisco shortening.

- Yeah, I'm looking.

I'm just, you know, without even asking you for a lesson, we're doing the same thing.

We're both rubbing.

- [Erika] We're both rubbing this snapping motion, yeah.

- Exactly.

A lot of time people will say till the size of peas.

It's flakes.

- It's flakes.

It is, and now we're gonna add in our buttermilk.

Whatever liquid you're using, you wanna get to know that flour and say, how much hydration does this take?

- [Sheri] I'm gonna do whatever you do.

- Try not to make it too messy.

- If you tell me we're gonna stop and do a jig, I'm in on it.

Whatever you say to do.

- [laughing] We'll wait till the end to do that.

- Okay.

[laughing] - So we'll pour in about half of this, as you said, and then I just sort of toss it.

I use this spatula to toss it.

- I'm gonna put a little more drizzle in here.

Toss, toss, toss.

- [Erika] As you see, I didn't use all of the buttermilk.

- [Sheri] Right.

- But that's good, because we're gonna use it for something else to toss.

So you roll the dough onto the surface.

I just kind of pat it out, so I just roll it out, and then I take the same pinch and then- - [Sheri] Okay, about into thirds, like a, like a- - [Erika] Envelope.

And then we're gonna roll it out one last time.

I leave it a little thick.

If you want that big, thick biscuit, you gotta, you gotta give some, you gotta have some- - We're not making pie crust.

We're making biscuits.

- [Erika] Yeah.

[upbeat music] Well, with the buttermilk, well, you get the shiny tops, and so you just sort of brush these on the top to give it that sort of shiny- - I love that you brush with buttermilk, because I have always used melted butter.

I'm gonna learn so much.

- Yeah, it gives you almost, it almost gives you sort of that nice browning, almost like an egg wash. [upbeat music] And so we will bake these just like this.

- [Sheri] Hot oven?

- [Erika] Hot oven.

- [Sheri] What temperature?

- [Erika] 450.

[upbeat music] - [Erika] Biscuit buffet here, yeah.

- Biscuit buffet.

- There's several things going on.

You got that crunchy outside.

Then you got that totally tender middle.

You got the mid ground.

Thanks for letting me be in your house, and your kitchen, and for teaching me the finer points of biscuits, and then for us to get to sample our wares.

- Yes, and thanks for all that you do for Southern Foodways.

- I'm glad we're friends.

- Me too.

[chuckles] - You know, there is something special about using buttermilk in certain baked goods and dessert recipes, especially those with chocolate.

Sure, there's some cooking chemistry going on with the buttermilk and the chocolate, but when it comes to flavor, the proof is in the pudding, literally this pudding.

You have got to check out my chocolate buttermilk pudding, topped with a dollop of buttermilk whipped cream.

This is a quick, simple stove-top pudding.

It has just a few ingredients.

We're gonna start by combining some sugar, some unsweetened cocoa powder, and a little bit of cornstarch in a sauce pan.

Now, you'll you'll notice that I'm sifting this.

It's because cocoa powder is notorious for lumping up.

This is gonna save you time in the long run.

And then we're gonna whisk in are two forms of dairy.

There's some heavy cream, and of course, there's good old buttermilk.

One of the ways to make this good and smooth is to add the liquid in stages.

Put in a little bit off of it, and then whisk until it's smooth.

It'll take just a few stirs, but when you do that, the cocoa makes a paste that is again, gonna save you time in the long run.

[upbeat music] And once that cocoa is all smooth, you can gradually whisk in the rest of your liquid ingredients.

[upbeat music] I'm gonna to put in a little bit of salt.

I'm now gonna cook this over medium-high heat, and bring it to a boil.

During this part, I like to switch from the whisk, which did a great job of making it smooth, and instead use a spatula that covers more of the bottom of the pan with every turn.

Now, the key to any buttermilk recipe is in fact, the buttermilk, so sometimes people will say, "Do I really need to buy buttermilk?

Can't I just curdle some milk with a little lemon juice or vinegar?"

Sure, you can curdle milk, but that won't replace the magic of those enzymes that make real buttermilk the real deal.

It's important to let this come to a good boil, because boiling is what activates the cornstarch, and thickens up the pudding.

Now I'm gonna take this off the heat, and I'm quickly gonna add a pat of butter.

That butter is gonna bring down the chocolate temperature, and keep it from scorching.

And now I'm gonna add the second layer of chocolate flavor.

This time I have semi-sweet chocolate.

I'm gonna add it in, and it'll quickly start softening in the warm pudding, and just stir until everything is melted and smooth.

And now all that's left is to put it into your serving pieces.

I like these little cups, but you could use a ramekin, a little jar, even a tea cup if that's what you have handy.

[upbeat music] These need to get good and chilled.

The pudding's a little soft now, but it will firm up, and be really creamy, and thick, and delicious when it chills.

That'll take at least four hours, but you're gonna get the best pudding if you let it hang out in the fridge overnight.

These spent a comfortable night in the refrigerator, and they have firmed up.

They're glossy, they're rich, they're perfect.

Now all I'm gonna do to finish these is put on a dollop of whipped cream.

There's a little buttermilk in this whipped cream, which gives it a tang that's gonna echo that delicious, rich tang that's in the pudding as well.

Now, they're delightful the way they are, but if you want to dress them up just a tiny bit more, take a little cocoa powder, put it in a sifter, and give it a little tap.

Now this is a sweet reward for making this pudding.

I hope you have a pudding moment.

I think you're gonna be stunned at what a little tangy buttermilk does to rich, delicious chocolate, and that little bit of tangy whipped cream on top, that's the ticket.

[upbeat music] ♪ It's ready ♪ ♪ Yes, it's ready so just let it all begin ♪ [upbeat music] So sometimes people ask me, "How long this buttermilk keep?

Am I gonna be able to use it up?"

Well, yes you can, for two reasons.

One, you're gonna put in all sorts of things, not just these recipes, but in a smoothie, or mashed potatoes, delicious options.

But another thing about buttermilk is keep in mind, it's fermented like yogurt.

It's gonna keep longer than most dairy products do, but if you're certain you're not gonna have time to use it up, guess what?

Buttermilk freezes beautifully.

All you need to do is to pour it out of the container into something that is airtight that can go in your freezer.

I suggest you put it in increments you're likely to use in recipes, maybe a half cup or a cup, whatever you think you're gonna use most often when it's thawed.

Once you put it in your freezer container, just make sure the lid is on good and tight.

Stash it in your fridge.

You've got buttermilk on hand for six months.

One last little tip.

When you let it thaw, let it thaw in the fridge.

Don't put it in the microwave.

Heating it up takes away all those magic cultures.

Keep it real.

[upbeat music] Buttermilk will always be a magical ingredient to me.

The chemistry, the taste, the variety of uses will put buttermilk at the top of my list as one of my very favorite things to use in recipes, or as I like to do, just drink it straight.

I feel like I've been handed the like, the Holy Grail, the chalice here.

And so how many hours a day do you spend milking cows?

- It takes about two hours.

We milk about 50 cows.

- And cows don't read the calendar, so this is seven days a week?

I mean- - [Randy] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It doesn't make any difference.

- [Sheri] You and the cows have no days off.

- Yeah, it's, well, even in our family, there is kind of a family business, so we, in the old days, when there were eight or 10 dairy farms in the family, we planned people's funerals around milking times.

It was weird.

It's the weirdest thing.

But you know- - It's not funny, but that's really funny.

[upbeat music] ♪ For all the recipes from the show, visit our website.

It's where you'll find the key ingredient for a perfect time in the kitchen.