Saving money by using dried milk

saving-grace

I use dried milk in yoghurt making and in the bread machine and I often also use it if making custard (Bird's type that is, not real egg custard) or white sauce. I sometimes put it in rice pudding but I'd just use half made-up dried milk and half fresh so the pudding still tastes creamy.
I just do this so the fresh milk in the fridge lasts longer for drinks and cereal so avoiding another trip to the shops.

Penelope_Penguin

Another great, thought provoking thread thriftlady :T I'm making pancakes for tea. I'm making extra as I'm using some to make spinach canelloni for later in the week. I always use dried milk for that. Just taken a look at the labe, and apart from silicon dioxide (which is inert so won't have a metabolic effect) I recognise everything else on the label as food.

With saving grace, I do this to preserve the fresh milk for drinking and cereal.

Penny. x

cdg1111

I bought a slow cooker recently and made a huge rice pudding in it this weekend using somerfield healthy powdered milk. It was better than the week before when I had used fresh.....

vfairbrass

I am a total convert to Thriftlady's point of view. I now make up a pint every morning and this stands by the kettle for use in hot drinks during the day. I also always use it in all my baking and particularly when making flans when I make the mixture up double strength so that it is more like cream.
It makes a big financial difference to me as I still use the milk man for my deliveries and his milk is more expensive that supermarket - 61 pence a pint I think.

celyn90

I use dried milk in cooking and for yoghurt, but not for much else. We also tend to buy the tesco value stuff as the only real difference is that it doesn't have the anti-caking agents in it (I have to use an awful lot of silica gel powder on its own at work and we have to wear masks to deal with it, so I'm loathe to eat it!). I don't drink milk, but OH does and he prefers fresh so we don't tend to use it as a total replacement. My grandmother only ever uses powdered milk though and has done for years as she's on her own and fresh goes off quicker than she would drink it.

Badger_Lady

I used to mix dairy-free coffee creamer with water... is that really skanky?

celyn90

Badger_Lady wrote: »

I used to mix dairy-free coffee creamer with water... is that really skanky?

Nope, it's a great idea! I don't take alot of dairy in my diet because it makes me feel ill, so that might be one way for me to drink hot chocolate without regretting it 30 mins later! cel x

rach

apologies if this is dim but i want to make a white sauce for fish pie tonight and have some dried milk, so i'll give it a go. how exactly do you do it? microwave or hob? and do you mix it up first or just as you make the sauce?

sorry to sound dim...

tallulah_beaulah

I use dried milk for HM instant hot chocolate, mix it with cocoa powder and sugar, I keep it made up in a jar next to the tea and coffee so it just gets used, without anyone noticing its not "proper" shop bought.

Also, I used to use dried milk for HM instant "Cuppa soup" type mixes. Dried milk, some stock powder and dried herbs, then make it up to soup by adding water, simmer it and add any left over cooked veggies or cooked meat.

Most of my dried milk ideas came from here. I read this site non-stop before I found MSE!

pounds_and_pensive

We stopped having 'normal' milk when we were kids after the milk-man retired and my mum and dad kept falling out with his replacement. ALL our milk was replaced with dried for years after that - none of us drank milk by the glassful anyway, and I don't think there was anything it was deemed unsuitable for. I think my parents were more fed up with messing about with milk powder than anything else when they eventually stopped using it - in favour of evaporated milk. We'd just pour a tin of it into a jug, fill the tin with water and add that to the jug too (making one and a half pints). The evaporated milk phase must have lasted about four or five years in our house. It's probably an acquired taste, but I think it's nicer than dried - creamier and not so 'bitty' - and worth keeping a tin around for emergencies. Asda evaporated milk is 33p a tin.

These days my mum uses long life semi-skimmed, as do I. This is mostly because I like to have as much as possible of my shopping for the week/month bought and paid for at the beginning of it, hopefully eliminating further trips to the supermarket over the duration. I switched my lot over to long-life milk about six years ago - there were a few complaints for three days or so while they got used to the taste or resigned themselved to having a cruel mother/wife, but they've been happily drinking it ever since.