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Buttermilk substitutes

Out of buttermilk? Here are the best substitutes — what to reach for, why it works, and how much to use. Milk + lemon juice is the top pick.

  1. 01
    Milk + lemon juicebest pick

    Acid curdles the milk to mimic buttermilk's tang and tenderizing action.

    1 cup milk + 1 tbsp lemon juice, rest 5 min

  2. 02
    Milk + white vinegar

    Same acidulated-milk trick; vinegar is more neutral than lemon.

    1 cup milk + 1 tbsp vinegar

  3. 03
    Plain yogurt, thinned

    Cultured and tangy like buttermilk, with similar body once loosened.

    thin with milk/water to pourable

  4. 04
    Kefir

    A cultured drinkable milk — nearly a 1:1 stand-in for flavor and acidity.

    1:1

  5. 05
    Sour cream, thinned

    Tangy cultured dairy; thin to buttermilk consistency.

    3/4 cup + 1/4 cup water

Cooking with buttermilk?

Paste your recipe into Mise — we'll find every ingredient as a real product you can buy, and swap the ones you can't, like buttermilk, for the closest match in stock.

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How we choose these

These are tested kitchen substitutes, chosen for matching flavor, texture, and role — with ratios so the swap actually works. Taste as you go; substitutes shift intensity, not just flavor.

Flavor data: Epicure (Radzikowski & Chen, 2026), arXiv:2605.22391, CC-BY-4.0.