Buttermilk is the secret unsung star of our kitchen. It provides acidity, it is a tenderizer, it adds richness, it is inexpensive, and it tastes really good. We use it in dressings and marinades, scones and biscuits, ice cream, and as a poaching medium. While buttermilk acts as an incredible poaching medium and an equally good carrier of flavors, it is not clean. Even when we monitor temperatures, the buttermilk has a tendency to coagulate and fill in nooks and crevices in poultry or other proteins we choose to poach in it. Because of this inherent flaw, we have strayed away from using buttermilk to cook in. However, today through another one of my many missteps, a solution became apparent. I am still trying to coat fish and cook it in yogurt. Today, I got closer to being able to wrap the fish in the yogurt and basically cook it in a yogurt bag. Yogurt, like buttermilk, has many great culinary attributes, and these were carried into the fish; though aesthetically, I could not serve the fish in the yogurt. Yet, the yogurt tenderized and sealed all the flavor into the fish and easily pulled away, leaving no visual trace of the yogurt. With these positive results, I plan to apply the same technique with buttermilk, allowing for a mud bath cooking environment which is easily removed.
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