How do I “evaporate” milk?

Question

I have a recipe that calls for evaporated milk. How can I make "Evaporated Milk" (from raw milk), or a reasonable substitute for the canned evaporated milk found at the supermarket?

Asked by Flimzy

Answer

Very easy. All you want to do is to remove the water through heating. As you are not going to can it, you don't have to sterilize it afterwards.

The only concern when evaporating milk is to not end with a layer of scorched milk solids on the bottom. First, start with homogenized milk (you don't want to risk undissolved fat swimming on top of it). If you want the pure milk flavor, heat it to 70°C and wait until you are left with half the initial volume. This takes several hours, depending on the quantity of the milk. My great-grandma usually did it overnight.

If you don't mind a "scorched" taste, you can do it much quicker. Take a very big pot. It should be at least 6-7 times higher than the milk depth, because the boiling milk will foam up a lot. The width is up to you, but the wider the pot, the quicker it will go. Bring the milk to a vigorous boil. Use a setting which is just hot enough to sustain boiling, too much heat will increase the scorching. Stir all the time. You need maybe 10 minutes of stirring, again depending on quantity of the milk and pot width. You are aiming for the same rate of evaporation - you should be left with half the original volume, or somewhat less.

You don't have to add sugar to evaporated milk, the sweet taste is caused by the heating. Especially the boiling-evaporated milk is quite sweet, because you get some caramelization.

Answered by rumtscho

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Can evaporated milk be converted to sweetened condensed?

Question

(Not a duplicate of this question, I don't believe)

If I have a recipe that calls for sweetened condensed milk but only have a can of evaporated milk, is there anything I can do to it to the evaporated milk to make it a suitable replacement for sweetened condensed milk? Does the heating / sterilizing of evaporated milk ruin it as a replacement?

Asked by squillman

Answer

You may convert evaporated milk into condensed milk by adding sugar to it. For each cup of evaporated milk add about 1 and 1/4 cups of sugar. Pour the mixture in a pan, stir while heating on the stovetop until the sugar completely dissolves. Let cool. The heating of evaporated milk is similar to the treatment condensed milk undergoes, so the evaporated milk with sugar should be a perfect replacement.

Answered by papin

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What is a good recipe that uses a lot of evaporated and/or sweetened milk? [closed]

Question

I have 60 oz of evaporated milk and don't know what to cook with it. I have found some recipes, but they only call for 12 oz to be used and I'm about to get another 36 oz. What is a good recipe (or recipes) that use a lot of evaporated milk? Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, or desert recipes are welcome. This question taught me that I can turn some of it into sweetened condensed milk, so that can be one of the ingrediants too.

Answer

Flan, a type of custard, is the same as crème caramel, tasty desert.

Pumpkin pie uses a bunch of evaporated milk.

Ducle de leche is a terrific desert topping and filling, translated literally it means 'sweet of milk'. The reason I mention this is that in Argentina and Chile, cans of sweetened condensed milk are boiled, unopened, on the stove for some hours to produce dulce de leche. I understand that what you have is evaporated milk, which is different; there is no reason not to try using it to make this delicious treat.

Here is a link with a bazillion uses for evaporated milk:

http://www.carnationmilk.ca/recipes.aspx

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Is sweetened condensed milk a substitute for evaporated milk?

Question

I have a recipe for Thai Green Curry that calls for evaporated milk, which I don't have. I do have sweetened condensed milk, will that do?

Answer

No.

Sweetened condensed milk has a 40% sugar content. It is very sweet, suitable for desserts and such. It is entirely too sweet to substituted into a curry.

The consistency is drastically different. Evaporated milk is about the same consistency as heavy cream. Sweetened condensed milk, because of its high sugar content, is more the consistency of a warm caramel.

Also, they are different colors, evaporated milk is white, sweetened condensed is light brown.

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