Using Powdered Milk

It is important that your powdered milk doesn’t just sit on the shelf waiting for a day of need.  As with all aspects of food storage, use what you store!  A family under stress is not going to suddenly drink powdered milk just because that’s all you have.  A parent under stress is not going to handle cooking with an unfamiliar item.  Start using it now!

If you or your family are not yet ready to convert to powdered milk for drinking, at least move some out of storage and into your pantry and use it in recipes calling for milk.  In most recipes, you don’t even have to mix up the milk before using it.  Just add the milk powder in with the dry ingredients and add the water to the liquid ingredients.  Use the chart below to determine the amount of powder and the amount of water to add.

Gradually incorporate drinking of powdered milk by 1) mixing half and half with store-bought milk, 2) adding a spoonful or two of sugar to a pitcher of reconstituted milk, or 3) adding ½ teaspoon to a half gallon pitcher of reconstituted milk, to improve the flavor.  It also helps to make a pitcher of milk in the evening as the protein in the milk powder blends most easily if it gets a chance to stand after mixing and so it has a chance to chill.

Let your family make choices that might encourage using powdered milk:  if they want to drink store-bought milk they can only have it straight or on healthy cereals; if they want chocolate milk or sugary cereals, they need to use powdered milk!  Yes, it is an acquired taste…but you can’t acquire it if you don’t keep trying.

Conversion Chart

Use this chart to use reconstitute powdered milk.  Or, to use in any recipe calling for milk you don’t have to reconstitute it first.  Just look down the “milk” column for the amount needed in your recipe then add the dry powdered milk to the dry ingredients and the water to the wet ingredients.  Don’t worry about being exact:  a little more milk powder than indicated will just make a richer mixture.