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

14 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!

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Comments (4)

lindac
14 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
14 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
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althetrainer
Original Author
14 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
14 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..

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lindac

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

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lindac

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