I thought I knew about powdered milk, now I have to think again..

17 years ago

I have been using powdered milk for years. From baking to the out-of-milk emergency, my storage of powdered milk always saved the day. Since a lot of recipes call for non instant powdered milk, that's what I have in my storage.

I usually get my powdered milk from the same sources: the large chain grocery store ($0.98/100g) that I patronize and the LDS cannery ($1.02/100g). They both carry non instant dried skim milk, as far as I know, and their label is "non-fat powdered milk".

I noticed the price of powdered milk has gone up so began to look for a cheaper source. Went to a local health store two days ago and found some. There were two bins side by side, one said "full fat milk powder" while the other one "instant non-fat dried milk". The full fat one was $2.50/100g and the instant skim milk powder was $0.55/100g.

Considered one is non-instant and full fat while the other is instant and non-fat, I knew the full fat powdered milk would be more expensive than the other but I didn't know it could be that big a difference. Because of the price I decided to check out the instant stuff. To my surprise, it looked and tasted just like the non instant skim milk powder that I have been using.

The way I can tell the instant stuff from non-instant is to touch and taste it. The instant dried milk has a much coarser texture while the non-instant is fine like powder. Plus, instant powdered milk melts as soon as it hits the water while the non-instant you will have to work the lumps out.

Now, this is the part that confuses me. I was curious so I bought some of this instant powder. Got home and poured some hot water in a cup with some powder in it; it didn't dissolve immediately and I had to work the lumps out. I compared the texture to my own powdered milk, they're almost identical!

Here I am, scratching my head... there are three possibilities: 1) the health food store labeled the bin wrong 2) I have been using the wrong kind of powdered milk 3) I don't know anything about powdered milk

Can someone give me some insights to enlighten me? This is really bothering me!

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (4)

lindac
17 years ago
Instant powdered milk makes lumps in hot water....to add it to a boiling gravy or soup, it's best to mix first with a little cold water.
Linda C
User
17 years ago
I recall the same thing as Linda - you can't reconstitute it in hot water. Here's a link to some information.

Here is a link that might be useful: Powdered milks
Related Discussions
I thought I was frustrated before..now I have an iPad!
Q
Comments (19)
I found the Blackberry very straight forward. You could be reading your mail, click a link and read the web page and return to your mail without having to close the web page and return to the home screen. The I phone does not have a back button which I find so frustrating. My son has an Android and I find it more comfortable to use. It does have a back button. I like the screen better, seems clearer/sharper than Iphone. Iphone brags about their retina display. Sons, Samsung is brighter and colors seem better. Iphone is a data hog. You must remember to constantly close programs or they continue to run. There is no 'xing' off anything. You have to leave a page by returning to the home screen. There are so many things I dislike about the Iphone I won't bother taking the time to list. My guess is, if Iphone is your first smart phone, you'll love it because it's all you know. I also think it is appealing to younger people because of the Apple status symbol. Blackberrys were more 'business' orientated. They operated more like a computer. You could work from multiple screens and pages. Can't do that with the Iphone. Snidely, I've been following Blackberry over the past year hoping the company would come out with a new phone. I thought it was going under. I hoped Microsoft might buy them out. Now it seems they will release their new phone in the next few weeks. The tech reviews were very good. Blackberry will not have a physical keyboard but the testers report loving how well their new touch keypads work. The reports loved the ability to have multiple windows working at once without losing your place. I know many professional people who gave up on Blackberry and upgraded to Iphones. Not one of them thinks Iphone is better than their old phones. Many state they might switch back and are waiting for the release. If I can't get a Blackberry, I'd get an Android. I think its a better phone. Jane
...See More
Now that I have [X], I think I could have lived without it.
Q
Comments (135)
-Prep sink. This may be useful in a multi-cook household or a huge kitchen, but I hardly ever used the one I had and it was just once more thing to clean. -Garbage disposal. My worms do a much better job, don't take up electricity and never smell or require cleaning. -Fancy multi-function toaster, oven, rotisserie, pizza, etc. Does nothing well. -Trash can with a motion sensor. Everyone I know who has one has them break in under a year. Mine only took 4 months to break. A foot pedal is much more reliable and a lot cheaper to replace. -Stainless steel sink. What a pain to clean. You can call it patina, butafter a while they don't look clean no matter what you do. (The one in my apartment right now looks positively foul no matter how much Barkeeper's Friend you use.) Of course cast iron will eventually chip and I don't know if the granite composite sinks will stand the test of time -Range-top grill. Only pay for these if you have a bodacious vent system and no way to have an outdoor grill. They are better than the George Foreman-like grills but not a patch on a decent outdoor gas grill or charcoal. ---- As for sink tip-outs... since discovering them I have knocked the front panel off every sink in every home I've rented or owned and installed these. In the bathroom they are perfect for the tweezers and nail files and such. In the kitchen, the sponges, scrubbers, stoppers and the toothbrush you use for cleaning around the faucet plate are neatly hidden away but close at hand. Love 'em!
...See More
Layout again, now I think it is better but still need help
Q
Comments (12)
Yes, lightlystarched, bmorepanic and salmon_slayer (what a name!), I agree, that 'V' is bothering me too. Do you think it would work if we just softened the 'V' and the countertop corners on the cabinet or would it still be too large? I am hoping to put an undercounter refrigerator there so a smaller one would not work for that purpose. But also don't want to create an eyesore. So I keep looking for pictures of something similar but haven't found anything yet. salmon_slayer, we are going with Elm cabinets, it is a local brand here (NJ), marketed as "reasonably priced" (they think :)) custom cabinets. We saw them at a neighbor's house and were very impressed so decided to use them too. One benefit - same price for inset as for full overlay. I was very happy about that and decided to go with the inset but now learning it may be harder to achieve the integrated look with the dishwasher (the doors on the full overlay help to cover more of the appliances, something I didn't consider previously), so now thinking about that one again. As far as the microwave goes, KD suggested the cabinet above the appliance garage. Well, it is very far from the fridge and also right next to the basement door. Our laundry and also a play area are in the basement so there is some traffic. Should I be concerned about it? The other option is the upper cabinet next to the refrigerator but even apart from the way it would look, it would mean dividing the upper cabinets on both sides of the range into a 24" and a 10" so loosing some storage on the right side as well.
...See More
I knew I was in for it when...give us a story about a child/pet
Q
Comments (25)
When she was about three, we started calling our youngest child "Avalanche" because it seemed that wherever she went, things collapsed and fell down - store displays, book shelves, stacks of papers, etc. She is 23 now, tall, willowy, beautiful, educated. Never clumsy, actually quite graceful and athletic. Well...This morning she left to teach English in S. Korea for a year, Last night, perhaps as her parting shot, she knocked over a plant her daddy and I received as a wedding present in 1968, just as we were about to sit down to dinner! All our "big kids" and their families (19 of us) were here to say farewell. At the sound of the crash, almost in unison the big kids called, "AVALANCHE!!!" When the cloud of dirt/dust settled, you should have seen the look on her face. Every surface in two rooms was covered in black grit and we had to toss dinner. I have kept that plant alive for 40 years, given it away a hundred times to acquaintances and each of our kids as they married, sort of as a symbol of longevity. As big as the mess was (actually, still is - I have to repot the plant and clean the rooms) I'm oddly glad it happened. My little Avalanche is going to be gone for a year, and I am terribly sad about that.
...See More
althetrainer
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks Linda C and momj47. I did try using cold water to mix, still lumpy. Did I miss anything? Or both the regular and instant powder suppose to do that?
grainlady_ks
17 years ago
Instant milk powder is a larger grain because it's puffed-up with air and is designed to be reconstituted in cold water - hence the INSTANT aspect. Non-instant requires warm/hot water to reconstitute. As Linda pointed out, that was the cause of your mixing problems.

If a recipe calls for NON-instant powdered milk and all you have is INSTANT, you need to run the dry instant powder through a blender or food processor to make a fine powder BEFORE you measure it for a substitute for non-instant. There is just too much air in instant milk to use measure-for-measure for non-instant.

Important to note... Because of so much air in instant dry milk, you may need as much as 50% more to equal the same amount as non-instant. So choose carefully and figure the amount of reconstituted milk each brand makes. It takes more instant milk than non-instant to make the same amount of milk. In my long history of using dry milk products exclusively (over 28-years) instant non-fat dry milk is rarely a bargain over non-instant because they never make as much reconstituted milk.

Brands vary in taste, texture and what works in certain recipes the best, and because of that I keep 5 brands of dry milk and whey-based milk substitutes in storage (instant and non-instant). One brand of instant non-fat dry milk powder has nearly half the weight in a #10 can, and another 2/3 as much as my non-instant whey-based milk substitutes - so you nearly always get half as many servings with instant dry milk products than non-instant.

If you are using powdered milk products with young children, you will want to include some dry whole milk products since children require the additional fat for brain development.

-Grainlady

I thought I knew about powdered milk, now I have to think again..

Comments (4)

lindac

User

Related Discussions

althetrainer
Original Author

grainlady_ks

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

I thought I knew about powdered milk, now I have to think again..

Comments (4)

lindac

User

Related Discussions

althetrainerOriginal Author

grainlady_ks

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

althetrainer
Original Author