buttermilk, the fluid remaining when the fat is removed by churning cream into butter. It was formerly used as a beverage, but today it is mostly condensed or dried for use in the baking and frozen desserts industry. It has been replaced as a beverage by cultured buttermilk, which is prepared from skim or low-fat milk by fermentation with bacteria that produces lactic acid. The resulting product is thicker than traditional buttermilk but is similar to it in other respects.
Cultured buttermilk, like skim milk, consists mainly of water (about 90 percent), the milk sugar lactose (about 5 percent), and the protein casein (about 3 percent). Buttermilk made from low-fat milk contains small quantities (up to 2 percent) of butterfat. In both low-fat and nonfat buttermilk, some of the lactose is converted by the bacteria into lactic acid, which gives the milk a slightly sour taste and makes it easier to digest by lactose-intolerant consumers. The high numbers of live bacteria organisms are also thought to provide other healthful and digestive benefits.