Buttermilk

This recipe originally accompanied <epi:recipe link="" id="100982">Confetti Salad with Ranch Dressing</epi:recipe>.

With tender buttermilk cake layers, a cranberry jam so good you’ll want it on toast, and a silky white chocolate frosting, this is a cake that’s equal parts impressive and achievable.

This pasta starring summer corn achieves its savory, creamy sauce thanks to one special ingredient: buttermilk powder.

Tall, flaky buttermilk biscuits are given the garlic bread treatment–plenty of butter, two kinds of garlic, and lots of herbs and cheese.

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. 

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.

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

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.