Saturday 19 November 2011

'Condensed milk'

The final piece of the jigsaw that is avoiding Nestle products has fallen well and truly into place, so I can cock a snook at them. I have long avoided the company on ethical grounds ( Baby Milk Action and others), but the sticking point recently was condensed milk - I use it for puddings and fudge making, etc. Up until a few years ago, you got a choice of  Carnation or Fussell's - then these were both swallowed up by the evil Nestle. I confess I did keep buying the milk - some for using, other for storage for emergencies and prepping.
I scoured the internet and came up with the theory that you can indeed make your own 'condensed milk' - I use the  inverted commas as it's strictly a substitute for the real stuff- something that those who post about it don't seem to bother with, but I do. Another gripe with me is that of the recipes I've seen on the net, several have no acknowledgement of  where they came from - not an easy thing to make up a recipe for this due to getting the proportions just right. A quick copy and paste shows me that at  least one blogger has reposted a method that is not hers, with no acknowledgement, and that makes me cross.
This is the recipe I used:

http://almostbourdain.blogspot.com/2011/01/homemade-condensed-milk.html

I ma delighted to report that it is highly successful - great consistency (was my worry), tastes just like the real thing, quick and easy to make, and not too hard on the housekeeping money.  I haven't used it in making anything yet, it's in the fridge. I think I'll have an investigate into how to store it - might try freezing a little as an experiment, would be wonderful to be able to make a double batch for future use. I wills ave the next tin I open, wash it out and store, so I can get a quick and easy measure for my home made 'milk'. Give it a go, it's one of the more worthwhile things to make at home.

3 comments:

Blue Shed Thinking said...

If you have the time & patience, you can make Dulce de Leche, or in French, Confiture de Lait. Basically, condensed milk, condensed even further.

Gorgeous stuff. Doesn't keep more than a few weeks though. But fantastic in porridge, among other things.

MrsL said...

That's probably on the list to do, as I need it for bannoffee pies - and this has no tins to boil!

MrsL
x

Karen Lizzie said...

There are other brands of condensed milk around these days. They tend not to be British, so it may take more work to research their ethics. You might try a shop that caters for Polish people, or somewhere similar.