How do you all feel about powdered milk?

[youthere]

Given the high price of dairy I'm considering switching over...or at least mixing fresh milk 1/2 & 1/2 with dry. I'm a little trepiditous because when I was a kid we lived almost exclusively on dry milk and I hated it with a passion (and no matter WHAT my father said, it did NOT taste "just like fresh"!) I'm thinking if we mixed it 1/2 & 1/2 it may not be so bad. Dairy is the real killer on our grocery bill. We only let the kids drink milk at mealtimes and still we go through it like crazy.
I think I could probably cook with it, with no problems. I occasionally bake bread with it, and it helps give a great texture to it. What do you all think?

[NMDemDist2]

1. i'd love to try it, but hubby drinks 3 gallons a week and his mom did

the mix the dry with the regular thing when he was a kid and he'd have a fit.

so I just buy more hamburger and less steaks, stock up when stuff's on sale and try to make due

for what it's worth, if it is COLD COLD it seems to help whenever I've tried dry milk

on edit, use the dry milk in your bread recipes though

here's a thread on bread, check out the King Arthur's recipe (2nd one)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=236&topic_id=6007

[silverweb]

2. Drinking it... blech!!!

Cooking with it... great.

The only conceivable way to get powdered milk down in liquid form is to make it very chocolatey and ice cold. It may or may not work with your family.

All I can suggest is to ration the fresh milk, cook with the powdered (and try it chocolated).

Above all, always but always have iced tea, lemonade, or some other inexpensive cold drink easily at hand for the kids. Try stevia for sweetening, or half sugar/half generic Sweet-n-Low (the cheapest and, in my opinion, the safest after stevia).

Also, keep the milk jug buried at the back of the fridge, but the substitute cold drinks conveniently right up front.

[youthere]

3. good tips..thank you.

I've never had powdered chocolate milk before. My kids love chocolate so maybe they would go for it.

[silverweb]

4. You're most welcome.

I hope it helps.

Regarding other cold drinks, I just remembered something else I used to do, which was make a gallon-sized sun tea jar full of blended combinations to keep in the fridge.

Unsweetened Kool-Aid is cheap and each packet makes 2 quarts. I used to routinely mix Kool-Aid lemonade with iced tea, real fruit juices, or with other Kool-Aid flavors like grape and raspberry. Again, sweeten with stevia or half sugar/half Sweet-n-Low.

This really stretches the more expensive juices and offers plenty of variety, thus putting less demand on the milk supply.

[Warpy]

6. Mixing whole milk with dry milk is a good idea, though

because not only does it help you stretch the budget, it lowers the fat content of the whole milk. It's an acceptable compromise for most kids.

However, kids over about 8 don't really need milk at all meals. Introducing something like iced tea at the evening meal will also make the milk budget go down.

[eleny]

5. I've mixed it with milk when we run low

Sometimes I can't get right to the store, so I mix it with what I have in the fridge to stretch it. Not bad. I just decide that it's okay and it's okay. :) To make it taste better, I've used more powdered than the recipe calls for to make a quart.

It works fine in puddings for me, too.

[Dora]

7. I love taking a powdered milk bath.

The lactic acid in the milk works as an exfoliant. Skin comes out nice and soft, though the bathroom does smell a bit milky afterwards.

[youthere]

8. Whoa! I never thought of that! I'm always wasting money on..

"spa" type stuff..especially bath oils, beads, salts etc. I've never heard of using dry milk but I'm going to try it. My husband will be doing backflips because I won't be buying the commercial stuff anymore.

[Dora]

9. It's a treat, especially in the winter.

Be generous with the milk. I recommend a couple of cups of dry milk for a bath, or more if you're feeling decadent.

[dropkickpa]

10. Not big milk drinkers here

I usually only go through about a gallon a month, most of that for cooking or cereal. I've never had powdered milk, how is it on cereal?

[DawgHouse]

11. I remember drinking powered milk when I was a child.

Actually I think mom used to stretch whole milk by mixing it with half powdered milk and water. I think I could probably cook with it but I don't know if I'd want to drink it all the time. Although it could be like a lot of other things and maybe it's improved over the years. I think I'll try it again, too!

[hvn_nbr_2]

12. I haven't drunk it much but...

I seem to remember that mixing it up in a blender instead of by hand somehow made it better, maybe aeration or maybe just dissolved better.

I've also noticed that it doesn't come out chalky like it used to 20 or 30 years ago--they must have better technology for drying it now.

I think I recall that using a bit more milk powder per measure of water than they tell you also made it better. Using the proportions they tell you always used to make it seem like watered down chalk water.

One thing to consider: Most powdered milk is nonfat (I think), so if someone is used to whole milk or even 2% or 1%, then skim milk, powdered or regular, will leave something to be desired, at least till you get used to it. I've been drinking skim milk for so long that even 1% now tastes and feels a bit decadent, but when I first started using it, it seemed really light and missing something. If you're used to fat milk, you'll need to taper off the fat content to get used to it; mixing some powdered reconstituted with some regular fat milk may help.

A couple ideas I have but haven't tried: 1. Mix in some whey protein powder; it seems to add a nice, very slightly sweet taste to regular milk when I put it on cereal, it dissolves easily, and it obviously adds some protein, if you want that. 2. Try mixing in some Lactaid (or other brand of lactase), even if you're not lactose-intolerant. It seems to give milk a slightly sweeter taste, which may appeal to the kids, and I presume it would do the same for reconstituted powder.

I used to use about a tablespoon of dry milk in the bread machine, because the manufacturer's instructions said to do that. I never experimented with leaving it out, so I don't know what effect it had. Recently I discovered that I'm sensitive to gluten so I don't use the bread machine any more. (I've read some bread recipes that don't use wheat but I haven't tried them yet.)

[kittykitty]

13. I mixed it 1/2 and 1/2 for years when my kids were here. I used whole milk and

powdered. I put water 2 gallon jugs, put in the powdered milk through a funnel, shook them up to blend, then added the whole milk to each. After they were refrigerated a few hours, no one seemed to know the difference.