The Animal Farm Buttermilk Cookbook

The Animal Farm Buttermilk Cookbook: Recipes and Reflections from a Small Vermont Dairy offers 100 recipes, from sweet to savory, designed to showcase the best that buttermilk can contribute to food, all set in the context of what it is like to live and work on a small Vermont artisanal dairy.

For anyone who’s enjoying a return to real food, true buttermilk remains one of the great, undiscovered pleasures. Many people enjoy organic produce, grass-fed meats, and artisan breads, but “real” dairy has been slower to reach a wide market. In fact, dairy products have long been pasteurized and homogenized into bland tastelessness, with no regard to where the product came from or how it was made.

On Animal Farm in Orwell, Vermont, Diane St. Clair takes butter and buttermilk production to a new level. The Animal Farm Buttermilk Cookbook explains her techniques, from animal husbandry and land management, to her creamery processes. Here you’ll learn how to make your own butter and buttermilk at home, and then experiment with the fabulous ways in which buttermilk enhances food flavors and textures.

You’ll also find practical but unique recipes for using buttermilk—everything from buttermilk doughnuts dipped in maple syrup, to salmon chowder, buttermilk ricotta gnocchi, and harissa buttermilk salad dressing. Families will love the buttermilk béchamel pizza, the spicy buttermilk gingerbread, and pork chops smothered in buttermilk sauce. Buttermilk is not just for waffles anymore - although the best waffle recipe you’ll ever find is in this book!

About the Author

Diane St. Clair has been making her artisanal butter for Chef Thomas Keller's restaurants for over a decade, starting with two cows and now milking eight. She also supplies Chef Barbara Lynch's No. 9 Park restaurant in Boston. Diane has been bottling her buttermilk for three years, and it is sold throughout New England by Provisions International and sold in New York City through Saxelby Cheesemongers. In addition to making butter and buttermilk, Diane raises veal, pork, and chicken, as well as eggs. Prior to coming to Vermont 25 years ago, Diane worked in public health in New York City, and she has a master's degree in public health from Columbia University. Diane has two adult children, and now lives with her husband, a large-animal veterinarian, on Animal Farm, in Orwell, Vermont.