One of the things I have been meaning to do for our emergency food supply is get some powdered milk. I finally bought a big box of it from Walmart, but I want to also try it out and see how it tastes. The last time I had powdered milk was back in junior high and high school when I'd go to my best friends house. That's all they used for milk. I HATED it! Putting it in cereal was pretty bad and to drink a glass of milk of it? UGH! it was so gross. I never quite understood why they used that for their milk and I don't think I ever asked. I don't imagine it was to save money, they lived in a nice big house on a golf course, LOL, but you never know. I imagine they were just used to the taste of it.
So, I just made up 2 cups of it to see if my tastes have changed, especially drinking 1% now, rather than the whole milk my mom bought when I was growing up. Instructions say it's best when stored in sealed glass container and overnight. I don't have a sealed glass container but I do have a sealed clear plastic container that came with my little ninja blender, so that will have to suffice for this test. I tried a little bit in a glass, just tap water cold. Not great, but not terrible, either.
I think at a minimum it's definitely something I could use for cooking, as several of the casseroles or skillet meals I make call for milk. It would make my regular milk last a lot longer. It seems that is my major reason to have to make a run to our little grocery store here in town, I need milk.
Stay tuned for my taste test tomorrow!
It is much more expensive than using regular milk. Plus, I have heard that some dried milk from the survival type vendors on the internet is almost indistinguishable from regular milk. I tried Nido and it's not bad, but not good, either.
ReplyDeleteThe box I bought works out to $2.90 a gallon, so about the same/little less than I can buy regular milk here where I live. Milk at our grocery store in town is #3.19 for their cheapest brand.
DeleteI remember once reading in The Tightwad Gazette, that its author, Amy, mixed half read milk with half powered and her family couldn't tell the difference. I always wanted to buy powdered milk but it is so expensive. I can get a gallon of milk for only $2.46 here in NY. Sometimes in Florida it's only $1.99!!!!!
ReplyDeleteGood luck.
The cheapest I can get milk is $2.89 but I gotta haul it home 55 miles. LOL. I just thought maybe having it on hand for cooking so many I'm not having to run to the store for milk so often.
DeleteIt USED to be less expensive, but no more. Actually, I find milk is one of those things are tricked into thinking we need, to put on cold cereal, another "necessity" we were marketed into. We don't have a lot of cold cereal in our house, so we generally only use milk for cooking, but I will use half and half if I am out of milk, before I send somebody to the store. Heavy cream, though....THAT, we use A LOT.
ReplyDeleteI drink a lot of milk. I have a glass in the morning mixed with Carnation instant breakfast mix and always have a glass with dinner. I rarely have cream on hand. In fact I just threw some out that went bad :/
DeleteI love milk. I really love it with chocolate Instant Breakfast from Carnation.
DeletePosting again to say that it's funny you would think that people like your friend needed to economize on things like milk, simply because they chose to. We certainly CAN afford to provide cold cereal for our kids but choose not to. I am sure their friends look at our home and wonder what's up with that, just like you did with your friend. You don't HAVE to spend money just because you can. That sort of thinking is what gets people in huge financial trouble. Sometimes, it's o .k. to save just for the sake of saving. The small savings add up.
ReplyDeleteWell, I was only 14 years old then, so who knows why I thought they used powdered milk, haha! I just remember thinking it very weird and did not like the taste of it at all. We keep a little cereal on hand, but usually it's for an evening snack or something. I rarely have it for breakfast.
DeleteInteresting experiment! Growing up, my mother used to mix half powdered with half regular. Never gave it much thought, but perhaps that is why to this day I dislike milk. Honestly can't remember the last time I drank it!
ReplyDeleteSometimes I'll order a glass of milk with my meal at a restaurant. LOL. I rarely drink soda and sometimes water is just too bland.
DeleteI don't know how old you are, but powdered milk was a lot cheaper back in the day, and since there were six kids in my family (and we were NOT wealthy), my mom mixed it half and half with real milk, too. It was one of my evening tasks to mix a half gallon each night and put it in the fridge, since it tasted better cold (and the lumps would float to the top so you could skim them off...ugh). I hated it, but now I don't drink a lot of milk.
ReplyDeleteI'm in my 50's. I think I assumed it was cheaper than real milk back when I was a kid. I should ask my friend from back then if she drinks milk now ;)
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