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?
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2 Answers
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 Oct 20, 2011 at 11:27
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1Thanks for the detailed answer. I don't have access to raw homogenized milk... Is there any way I can reduce the risk of "undissolved fat swimming on top of it?" If not, what is the risk here? Just an uneven consistency when I'm done?– FlimzyCommented Oct 20, 2011 at 11:30
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1The milk doesn't have to be raw, it can be pasteurized or ESL. I don't know if UHT will work. Practically all milk in the regular supermarket is homogenized. If you buy milk from an organic market, it can be non-homogenized. The risk is indeed bad consistency. If you have a cow and want to use its raw milk, you have to do it with very fresh milk, before the fat has separated. You can also skim the separated fat off the milk before you heat it, but you will end up with milk with a lower fat content, and for an application where you need evaporated milk, it is preferable to have higher fat.– rumtscho ♦Commented Oct 20, 2011 at 11:39
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I realize it doesn't have to be raw, but I'm trying to use a large quantity of raw milk I have available. If I was going to buy pasteurized milk for this, I'd probably just buy canned evaporated milk anyway. Thanks for the additional clarification. :)– FlimzyCommented Oct 20, 2011 at 11:41
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2You can also do this with soy milke, and I assume other non-dairy milks. I have done it to make pareve pumpkin pies, and it turned out perfect with soymilk.– ManakoCommented Oct 20, 2011 at 15:37
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Keep in mind that in Canada, we use the term Homogenized to mean whole milk. In common parlance, there is Skim, 2% and Homo. (although they are all homogenized in the technical sense), and yes, milk comes in bags. Commented May 8, 2012 at 15:33
I've heard that some people simply put milk on a large pan or container and leave it there for some hours to naturally evaporate without heating it up or anything. Did anyone here try that before?
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2This will most likely get closed, as you didn't use the ask question. And there's a good chance that people who have tried it wouldn't be around to answer the question, as room temperature milk for hours is a major risk for bacterial growth (and not necessarily the good kind if you didn't heat to sterilize, and then inoculate it with the one you want, like in cheese or yogurt making)– JoeCommented Oct 28, 2015 at 0:19
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On second thought ... I guess you did answer it by second-hand knowledge ... but I'm still going to say this would be a very, very risky idea.– JoeCommented Oct 28, 2015 at 0:20
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Did anyone here try that before?-- Yes. The result is usually called farmer cheese or simply "sour milk", depending on the bacteria present during the process.– FlimzyCommented Oct 28, 2015 at 18:56 -
I'm very sorry. The video I watched mentioned this so quietly and quickly I couldn't hear and didn't realize that they said that. Anyway, I tried simmering the milk, but the milk turned into odd, spongy solids, and I left it out too long. Whoops!– GraceCommented Nov 21, 2015 at 6:08