Buttermilk

One bite is all it takes to fall in love with this extra-plush, cardamom-scented cake.

This boozy pie tastes like a Hallmark Christmas movie—you know, in the best way.

This chicken is juicy, tender, and never ever dry—thanks to the tannins in black tea, plus a sneaky pinch of baking soda.

Laced with plenty of black pepper, this bright mayo-and-vinegar-based sauce is a trademark of Alabama barbecue.

Airy with an outer shell that is crunchy like toast and perfumed like sweet eggy heaven—this is a waffle worth waiting for. 

This cornbread recipe gets everything you want out of the simple sidekick: It’s easy to cut, not too sweet, and it holds together.

Buttermilk-soaked catfish gets superlatively crispy thanks to a rice-flour dredge, a tasty nod to both Juneteenth and Black fish-fry food traditions.

Yes, the convivial festival favorite can be recreated at home. This one’s even more fun with a ginger-tinged glaze and a shower of pulverized berries.

Meet your new picnic go-to. This tangy-coleslaw-meets-creamy-pasta-salad features a nutty sauce inspired by Japanese goma, or toasted sesame, dressing.

A slice of this spiced cake with buttermilk-cinnamon glaze feels like a warm hug, and the best part is, it takes less than an hour to make.

This one-pot dish is fallback comfort food—thick black-pepper-spiked chicken stew topped with tender, fluffy dumplings. 

With six layers of spice cake and an orchard’s worth of apple butter, this Appalachian apple stack cake IS the party.

An herbaceous hot sauce buttermilk soak and cornstarch-flour dredge are the keys to this juicy, flavor-packed fried chicken.

Stacking and flattening the dough creates lots and lots of flaky layers that beg to be pulled apart and slathered with softened butter. 

Enjoy the best of both worlds with this savory mash-up that plays well as a side on the holiday table—or as the star that it is.

Free up your oven and make the case for crispy, crunchy, sage and thyme-y fried chicken this Thanksgiving.

This recipe for homemade chicken and dumplings has tender shredded chicken, just the right amount of vegetables, and light, fluffy dumplings.

Biscuits and gravy, reimagined by L.A.’s Yangban Society to feature lofty buttermilk biscuits with rich curry gravy made with curry roux blocks (kare).

How do you make chocolate sheet cake better? Just add brown butter frosting, whose nuttiness is enhanced by an ingredient found in most grocery stores.

Call it a BLT salad, call it ranch salad, this combination of bacon-y breadcrumbs, tomatoes, and creamy cool dressing has got just enough going on for us to call it dinner.

Our favorite carrot cake recipe gets a crunch from toasted walnuts and a boozy punch from rum-plumped raisins, which are optional but recommended.

It’s not like a regular wedge; it’s a cool wedge—and by cool we mean stuffed with pickled jalapeños and paper-thin slices of mortadella and drizzled with tangy buttermilk dressing.

Like the best possible Morning Glory muffins but with grated butternut squash instead of carrot.

We gave biscuits the Thanksgiving treatment by packing these with classic stuffing flavors like sage, rosemary, fennel seed, and scallion.