This book was recommended on this sub previously: Make the Bread, Buy the Butter. It is.. ahem... available in other forms if you can't pay for it. Details what things can be made from scratch, and if it's worth it to bother or not.
There's a book called Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese. It has 120 recipes in it and she goes through what you should put time into making from scratch and what you should just buy. Here is the book on amazon. It seems to be available on kindle too. I'd highly recommend it, even just to read through. Hope that helps!
It is indeed buttermilk.
In the pre-refrigeration days, cream would often begin to ferment naturally, then churned into butter and buttermilk.
Today, we make cultured buttermilk by adding live lactic acid bacteria to the buttermilk, which produces the tang that you are missing in your homemade buttermilk.
You can simulate the effects cultured buttermilk will have in recipes by adding some distilled white vinegar or lemon juice to the buttermilk. Otherwise, you are better off purchasing cultured buttermilk from the store. It has a very long shelf life in the fridge, compared to your homemade buttermilk.
Also, I would suggest reading the book "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter" and consider if this is even worth your time and money.
My recommendation is a little different in attitude than most I'm seeing here. When I think goddess, the feeling that comes to mind is effortlessness- trial and strife is puny mortal stuff. A book that has been deeply influential for me is Tamar Adler's An Everlasting Meal. It's a cook book, or a cooking book, but it's much less a collection of recipes than it is a philosophy of food and the daily act of cooking. It's a poetic ode to the practice of loving and using food simply and well- the "economy" part of the tagline is true, but rather than being preachy she makes using up potato peels and beet tops feel like spinning straw to gold.
I have way too many cook books and I use probably 2 or 3, but some go in and out of that 2 or 3 rotation. My absolute favorite is Make the Bread, Buy the Butter
I like to do things from scratch, within reason. This book does a good job breaking things down in terms of time and cost as well as how different it will turn out
Tamar Adler has a great book on the basics of boiling, on Amazon roasting, etc. Love changing for me. I love cooking now.
I scrolled to find this comment. It is an exceptional book about when to draw the line between making and buying. Here's the book if you want it.
Malcom and Meathead. You gotta get Meathead's book!
There's a great book called Bake the Bread Buy The Butter and this question is the whole premises. The author makes and buys all kinds of stuff then gives you a cost and effort analysis of what's better, buy or make. Kimchi, absolutely make it. Corn nuts, nah, buy it and save yourself all the forearm burns.
There's a book out there and forgive me if someone already said it but Make the Bread, Buy the Butter is a good resource for this exact question.
My daughter gave me a great birthday present: Meathead - The Science of Great Barbeque and Grilling.
I had made brisket and pulled pork on the Traeger with mediocre results. This time I was having 20 people over for an end-of-summer blowout and the meat needed to be way better than mediocre.
This book did two things for me. First, the detailed instructions for technique PLUS the science behind what is happening on the smoker (I have a BS degree in Food Science) really helped me understand how to turn out perfectly smoked/cooked meat.
I can't recommend this book strongly enough. Using this book will unlock your inner Meathead!
Make the Bread, Buy the Butter? I remembered seeing it in an AskReddit post.
If you don't have it already, get this book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FX1AUNC/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Guys' a master griller and has a food science PhD helping him go through a bunch of the myths of grilling and explaining what's happening, why it matters, and how to achieve it.
> Living in texas really makes me appreciate the savings in being able to obtain high quality cuts from the butcher and the availability of product to get comfortable with it.
Yeah, I started grilling in Michigan when I was a broke grad student. Local butcher had nice cuts of ribeye on sale regularly for $5/lb (back in early 2010s). I moved back home to CA, same quality of cuts cost $11-16/lb.
It seems a lot of these recommendations, while possibly very good books, might seem overly daunting for someone who already doesn't like to cook, especially without a stocked kitchen on hand.
Something like The 5-Ingredient College Cookbook: Easy, Healthy Recipes for the Next Four Years & Beyond by Pamela Ellgen seems like it might be more suited.
The 5-Ingredient College Cookbook: Easy, Healthy Recipes for the Next Four Years & Beyond
The Cookbook & Guide For Your Probationary Firefighters & First Responders
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GL6GPCW
FREE until August 30th
> Hi, I am Michael Fields I have been a Firefighter for over 10 years, I wanted to write a book that is not only a guide to becoming a probationary firefighter or first responder, but also a cookbook to share my passion for cooking.
>This book will teach you the basics of what you need to know as a probationary first responder, and will teach you the basics of cooking.
This book "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter: What You Should and Shouldn't Cook from Scratch -- Over 120 Recipes for the Best Homemade Foods" is fascinating if you're interested in this. This woman tried all these recipes from scratch to come up with her conclusions.
https://www.amazon.com/Make-Bread-Buy-Butter-Shouldnt-ebook/dp/B004T4KXMS
You might start with the book <em>Adulting</em>. I haven't read it myself but gave it to my daughter when she was your age and she said it was great.
This book has a lot of information that might be useful: Adulting Also: Why Didn't They Teach Me This In School?
Ok I'm going to shamelessly promote myself here only because your question pretty much describes an ecookbook I released in January called 15-Minute Money Saving Meals for Students.
For the last few years I've held cooking workshops at local colleges teaching first year students how to cook. Many of the recipes in the book are ones the students and I make at those workshops. As the title suggests, it's for students who are interested in cooking their own meals, have limited time and want to save some money.
And since most of my cooking workshops are hosted by colleges during their Wellness Week events, the majority of the recipes in the book have a healthy spin :).
If that sounds interesting, you can take a look inside the book on Amazon to see if the recipes in the T.O.C look like ones you'd like to make. Here's the link http://www.amazon.com/15-Minute-Money-Saving-Meals-Students-ebook/dp/B00S8FH5NY
Hope this helps!