The Best Way To Save Excess Buttermilk

I had all kinds of good intentions for being in the kitchen today. That is, until I woke up and discovered that it's actually nice outside! I'm all in a funk after spending a couple days indoors (you heard me, rain), so I'm definitely going to take advantage of actual sunshine and get out of my house today. 

And, you guessed it. My kitchen's in my house, so I'm not going to be in my kitchen either. Shows how strong intentions are, eh?

But, just because I'm not spending time in my kitchen today doesn't mean I don't have anything to say about being in the kitchen.

I'll say this, for example:

The best way to save excess buttermilk is to freeze it.

Wow. Big statement. Do I have the gumption to back it up? You bet I do.

I made banana bread a few weeks ago and, considering that the recipe called for such a small amount of buttermilk and you can't find small amounts of buttermilk at the supermarket (unless they're hidden very well), I was left with almost a full bottle of buttermilk.

What could I do with it? I don't like to waste.

I did some research and found out that you can make hair treatments and facial treatments out of buttermilk. Seems about right. It's so silky and creamy.

But, here's the thing. As wonderful as it might seem for my hair or skin, I don't think I could get past the smell of the stuff. As I mentioned while making banana bread, it's all cow udder. Perfectly fine for baking with. Perhaps not so good to put close to my nose for long periods of time.

So, spa treatments? Out.

I decided to freeze it so that I didn't have to put it on my head; also, I figured that, come the next time I have to use just a little bit of buttermilk in a recipe, I'm going to buy a big bottle again and run into the same problem.

And it's so freakishly easy to freeze buttermilk (think: freezing water into ice cubes), it's virtually a no-brainer (word on the street is, zombies might not be so good at it). 

Buttermilk freezes like any other liquid. The added step to the freezing process is what makes it gravy (but not really gravy. it's still buttermilk.)

Pre-measure your buttermilk into teaspoons, tablespoons, or even cups. That way, when gathering ingredients for your future recipes, you'll be able to thaw out individual cubes or ziplock bags of buttermilk (I used bags for one-cup servings).

Label a ziplock bag with the ingredient (buttermilk) and serving size (one cup, tablespoons, etc.)

For one-cup servings, I placed my ziplock bag in a glass measuring cup. It kept it sturdy for me and it was quite easy to measure this way (thanks, glass, for being transparent!).

One-tablespoon servings of buttermilk fit perfectly in my ice trays.

After they were frozen, I put them in my labeled ziplock bag, admired their adorable cubey-ness, and threw them back in the freezer.

Now tell me: isn't that the best way to save excess buttermilk?