Misunderstood buttermilk: It's really low or no fat

Buttermilk might be the most misunderstood dairy product of our time. Because of its name, many people think that buttermilk is fattening, when in fact it is low- or no-fat and might be more aptly named "NO-butter milk."

It is also considered hopelessly old-fashioned. Ask for buttermilk in some markets, and the clerk will look at you as if you came in wearing high-button shoes, tatting an antimacassar.

Originally, buttermilk was the byproduct of churning butter. A thin, yellow-flecked liquid, it was drained off and left to thicken and sour with the aid of natural bacteria. Nowadays, adding a lactic-acid bacteria culture to skimmed milk makes buttermilk. This is "cultured" buttermilk, the kind sold in supermarkets. If you live in a 90-mile radius of Knoxville, Tenn., you may be able to buy "artisan" churned buttermilk from Cruze Farms. If you live elsewhere, head for the grocery store.

Back when butter was churned, frugal cooks soon learned that buttermilk made baked goods tender and flaky, and that it could be used to tenderize poultry and meats. Pioneer women were said to use it as a face wash, for a glowing complexion. Early in the 20th century, buttermilk advocates drank it as an aid to digestion. (Cheri Cruze once described her family's buttermilk as "grandma's probiotics.") It has long been touted as a hangover cure.

Buttermilk is a cousin to yogurt, to sour milk, to sour cream and English double cream. But it is its own specialty, with a thick but pourable consistency and an acidic tang that makes your taste buds take notice. Buttermilk has many traditional uses in dishes like pancakes, waffles, muffins, scones and doughnuts. Many cooks marinate their chicken in buttermilk before frying it. Buttermilk makes an excellent salad dressing.

Grady Spears, the "Cowboy Cook," printed this recipe for Buttermilk Ice Cream in "The Texas Cowboy Kitchen" (2007 Andrews McMeel). Without the egg yolks and heavy cream typical of homemade ice-cream recipes, it makes a light (but not light tasting) end to any meal, and it is a natural for pairing with berries and peaches. Also from Spears' cookbook, the Buttermilk Pie recipe - a variation on a dish called Chess Pie - is a bit of a heftier dessert.

Both dishes have a smooth, creamy texture and slightly tangy taste. It's what buttermilk is all about.

• Marialisa Calta is the author of "Barbarians at the Plate: Taming and Feeding the American Family" (2005 Perigee). For at marialisacalta.com.