Powdered Milk | TheaterFire

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the_kid1234@reddit

I think my mom used it for baking but every once in a while there would be a Saturday or Sunday morning where we ran out of milk. I had to mix up some powdered milk for the Raisin Bran…

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RussellAlden@reddit

Warm & lumpy. If you finished it off you had to make more so there was always a 1/4 inch left in the fridge.

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Caliopebookworm@reddit

Yup. We drank powdered milk. It was cheaper and when the government trucks would come around with cheese, etc....we could usually get a can.

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Kreesto_1966@reddit

Yeah, I was allergic to milk as a kid so my mom would substitute some powdered stuff with water -- I have no idea what was in it, but it was disgusting.

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I had a friend whose family didn't drink milk and who kept a few cans of powdered on hand just in case I ever asked for milk while I was over there. I quickly learned never to ask for milk while I was over there.

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The-Blaha-Bear@reddit

I'm going to admit that I liked powdered skim milk I drank growing up - to the point I can't drink regular milk today. To me, it always tastes "off".

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icecrusherbug@reddit

We didn't have to drink milk at home. Milk was for cereal. Powdered milk was for recipes. Drinking milk was for school lunch. Only drank water and Kool-aid at home. Drank water straight from the hose.

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ThinkOutcome929@reddit

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PiratesTale@reddit

Dairy addict here. I literally have organic powdered milk rn, and that's it. Trying to wean myself down, gently. Horizon brand is good tho!

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Majestic-Peace-3037@reddit

Almost.

My grandma finally had the sense of designate the powdered milk for cooking into things only and the gallon for drinking.

Like she would fight you if she caught you trying to cook with the real milk.

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sanityjanity@reddit

When I was a kid, I had a Halloween themed cookbook, and I swear there was a recipe for Root beer Ghosts.

The recipe was to pour root beer in a glass, and then spoon powdered milk on top, in the shape of a ghost.

I did this several times, and I remember liking it.

I can find no evidence, though, so perhaps it is all a dream

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Tough-Marsupial-6254@reddit

Deployed on an aircraft carrier, we had fresh milk up to a point then switched to powdered when fresh ran out. Stopped drinking that until the next supply tender came along

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theghostofcslewis@reddit

I used to bring it camping

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DoookieMaxx@reddit

I still use it to this day. I don’t drink milk, but when a recipe calls for it i use the powdered stuff

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MooPig48@reddit

I just have a bunch of it stashed away for when life gets even harder and more expensive over the next couple years. Along with a bunch of other stuff, rice/beans/flour/seasonings/etc

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grandmaratwings@reddit

Powdered milk can be used to make buttermilk substitute. Evaporated milk cannot. Was glad I had it when I wanted to make cornbread and didn’t have any milk or buttermilk in the fridge.

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Impossible_Jury5483@reddit

Yup. I don't drink milk, so I keep some powdered milk for random recipies.

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DoookieMaxx@reddit

Seems like it’s going to come back around again with it’s shelf life and versatility. Especially with food prices these days.

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PlantMystic@reddit

Same here.

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CJK_Murph@reddit

I keep it on hand and add some to my existing milk jug if I start to get low.

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ihatepickingnames_@reddit

I don’t drink milk anymore either but I just use unsweetened plain soy milk for most recipes. Pudding might be the exception if I ever decide to make some.

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RadioactiveLily@reddit

I don't recall drinking it, but we always had it in the pantry. We lived in the country with harsh winters. Getting to the store because we were out of milk wasn't always possible.

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T-bonehippie@reddit

Yep, right here! But my Mum mixed it with milk so it wasn’t horrible but a way to make milk last a little longer. Any little bit helped.

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M23707@reddit

We mixed a gallon of powder with a gallon of whole milk. — it was one of my many chores.

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PlumbutterOnToast@reddit

In elementary school, some days I'd go to a friend's house for lunch and his mom provided ketchup & Klik sandwiches with powdered milk. I was scarred, scarred for life.

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ifulbd@reddit

We had the gallon Tupperware pitcher. The gallon of actual milk from the store would get poured in, and until the next grocery trip, a random ratio of milk powder and water was used to top off the pitcher. Didn’t realize how white milk was until I had cereal at the college dining hall.

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AG74118669@reddit

We started drinking powdered because of the Mount St Helens volcano eruption and food supply concerns. (Of course we made zero other dietary changes whatsoever 😂. Between all the weird synthetic shit and Tang I can't imagine that a little bit of volcanic ash filtered through a cow would have made a big difference...)

We had the pitcher that had a plunger built into the handle, so you'd put the powder in and then use the plunger to supposedly mix it up but you still got all the chunks and then the plunger would get congealed glops of goo on it. so gross!

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LadybugCalico@reddit

We had mixed milk, half powered half bagged milk. It was still gross

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ElGrandeRojo67@reddit

My Dad was on strike for awhile in the 70's. The union Hall would provide canned goods, gov cheese and powdered milk and eggs. All of it was horrible, but we survived.

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Sitcom_kid@reddit

It was discussing and shouldn't exist. It made me hate all milk. All non-chocolate milk. Permanently.

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examinat@reddit

We had it when I was little in the 70s and we were on food stamps. I remember the cardboard box with the foil wrapper.

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JinnyWinny@reddit

My mom made us drink powdered milk for a few years when Chernobyl happened. We lived in Southern California at the time, and she was really concerned about the contamination spreading.

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CauchyDog@reddit

Yep, Granny always had a box of that crap. Shed get the white box with black letters generic, and corn flakes that said just that on the box. And making ice cream, or ice powder milk from it. Which was OK when I was 7 during summer...

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u35828@reddit

In our family, Mom insisted on skim milk. That was just white water.

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HorrorHostelHostage@reddit

It was gross and always tasted like sour milk. My mom denies she gave it to us, but I distinctly remember it and the jar she made it in.

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motormouth08@reddit

I believe this is the reason I can't stand milk to this day. Having clumps drop onto your generic corn flakes is not a great way to start the day.

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CeeTheWorld2023@reddit

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Taranchulla@reddit

Same

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sanityjanity@reddit

If you mixed the powdered milk with water, and then mixed that with real milk, and then refrigerate it, this was the best approximation you could get

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Human_Type001@reddit

My mother did this for a while. She mixed it in an old milk carton and hid the powdered milk in the back of the cabinet. Brother and I knew it was off, tasted horrible. So we searched all over the kitchen until we found it and then ratted her out to Dad. He was furious. We had plenty of money and went to private school and took nice vacations so there wasn't a financial reason to do it. She was just being awful.

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Capital-Cheesecake67@reddit

It was gross and never really tasted like real milk. Now as an adult, I have found it is great as an ingredient in baking.

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ArcherFew2069@reddit

Now it’s more expensive than fresh milk

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saltyavocadotoast@reddit

I thought it was just my weird family that drank that icky milk 🤣

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Claudia_SF@reddit

Meeee! I think the brand name was Stalak (sp?)

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ch00se_none@reddit

We had a specific blender that my mum used. I always thought it was horrific.

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Acrobatic_Mango_8715@reddit

bros and I grew up on powdered milk. And knew nothing else. It was thinner than regular milk but were pros on water to powder mixture. Ran out of milk? Fill the jug with water and a packet, shake shake shake. Now you have an another half gallon of milk.

My kids grew up on 2% regular milk, btw

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Basic_Scale_5882@reddit

My mom would trade ours in for tin can of peanut butter, she couldn't stomach it either. Even though we were dirt poor, my mother's milk with coffee was a non-negotiable..and cigarettes of course, because we all smoked in the 80s..smh.

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Shoots_Ainokea@reddit

It was gross and I was not a fan of milk anyway.

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beyondplutola@reddit

Heard about it as a survival type ration. Didn’t know people drank it outside bomb shelters.

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why_kitten_why@reddit

It was only tolerable if you made it the day before, and was nicely cold, in a jar you could shake before pouring.

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Bluerocky67@reddit

Uk here, we had St. Ives 5 pints. It was a plastic, milk bottle shaped container with powdered milk in, you’d add water up to the line, then shake the bejesus out of it. I didn’t mind it, better than no milk!

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dodadoler@reddit

Ew

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moooeymoo@reddit

Gen x here. Nope. Ick.

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No-Jump-9601@reddit

This is the reason that I don’t drink milk, it never felt cold and always had a ‘tang' to it, like it was close to going off but without the smell. I’ll use a little milk on cereal, cook with it and we always have it in for my husband but I never drink it, even in coffee.

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BadJuJu-Weirdo@reddit

Mom would put it back in an actual milk carton and try to pass it off as the real deal. 🙄

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justmyusername2820@reddit

My mom mixed it half and half with whole milk. We never knew she did that. She hid the powdered milk and made it when we weren’t around. She put it into the milk gallon jugs

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honkytonkdragon@reddit

Because it tastes more like fresh milk.

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Ok_Tank_3995@reddit

What are you on about? IT tastes NOTHING like the fresh stuff from a cow

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nvr2manydogs@reddit

Mom, here. I did that.

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just_a_knowbody@reddit

My mom would do that to try and extend our grocery budget. So gross.

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justlkin@reddit

My mom did this too. So, you'd go to take a big swig of what you thought was going to be ice cold, fresh milk and you instead got that garbage.

It was the absolute worst crap I've ever had to drink in my entire life. F poverty!

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Perle1234@reddit

My mom too, like how dumb did she think we were 😂

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AuroraDF@reddit

My mother kept a tin of 'marvel' in the cupboard in case we ran out of milk. I didn't like milk anyway, so it didn't matter to me what kind we were using!

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Impossible_Jury5483@reddit

My mom tried to stretch milk by adding water and powdered milk to real milk. I could taste the difference immediately, but that's some first world problems.

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DiscountCalm68@reddit

We three kids had to. And government cheese.

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tequilavip@reddit

At my local Walmart, the powdered stuff is $1.17/qt vs. real milk at $.80/qt. It doesn’t even make sense financially, let alone taste.

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mortsdeer@reddit

I did not know this was a generational thing. I just thought we went through some tight budget times when I was a kid.

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Dog_Callis_MNshiba@reddit

It's still a pantry staple

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kwiltshi@reddit

Yep. That powdered milk and block government cheese.

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Comprehensive_Edge87@reddit

Yep. Yep. Sometimes we got butter too..

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Katt357@reddit

Hey now, that government cheese was GOAT

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Lazy_Negotiation4133@reddit

That government cheese was some good stuff!

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PlantMystic@reddit

Yes. And I still use it. The trick is to keep it very very cold. I only use it in my coffee and tea, and also baking.

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shlomitisfeisty@reddit

My aunt and uncle used it and occasionally I had to stay over there. Blech. I can still taste it now!! What the hell is that? I preferred my cereal dry!!

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CathycatOG@reddit

OMG, my mom would mix it with regular milk to make it last longer and it always tasted horrible. I grew up thinking that I hated milk, when really I hated the gym sock flavour of powdered milk.

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STLHDslime@reddit

Never had it but I do remember the orange box with the little girl on the front holding a glass of milk. We always got our milk from the local dairy until they closed down in the early 90s.

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jtrades69@reddit

taste is based / from the bones of zombies / the dust is ground

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VXsqUbVXUdE

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TLATrae@reddit

OMG! I hated when we had to drink it, but I got that we couldn’t afford fresh milk and powdered milk was much cheaper at the time.

I still remember the rich, overly-sweet smell that got your hopes up — only to have them dashed when you took your first watery sip. Bleh.

It was fine for cereal, though. And it was great mixed with sugar and cocoa powder for homemade hot cocoa mix. Yummy!

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brlikethecar@reddit

Blech. I never liked it.

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lexi_prop@reddit

That stuff is awful. But it's not so bad in hot cocoa.

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UtahSalad66@reddit

Mom mixed it with milk 2-2

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Crafty_Original_7349@reddit

My grandma used it for baking, she used it to make bread that was just magical.

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Seawolfe665@reddit

Oh ick. I lived in the Philippines from age 3 to 9. Fresh milk was often spoiled by the time we got it, so we used powdered. My mom had to mix in a lot of Ovaltine to get me to drink it. To this day, if I can taste powdered milk in something I get the ick.

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rundabrun@reddit

It never bothered me but we never drank it in my home. I tried it later in life and it didn't bother me but I was never a huge fan of milk anyway.

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5uck3rpunch@reddit

We had powered milk in the cupboard as a backup all the time

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AggravatingOne3960@reddit

I didn't like it growing up, but I use it all the time now. I didn't like it growing up because we always had whole milk. Once you get used to slim milk, powdered milk is fine.

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Omshadiddle@reddit

We lived on a property a fair way out of town. Powdered milk was a staple. I used to mix it like a paste and eat it for a treat.

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Erok2112@reddit

My mom used it to make instant hot chocolate mix.

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TemperatureTop246@reddit

Yeah. We were subjected to that vile stuff .. powdered nonfat milk. It tasted awful. I don't like milk much anyway, never have, but now I keep a bag of dried whole milk in my freezer for baking... A couple tablespoons in the brownie batter...

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littlefire_2004@reddit

If you added it to 2% it was slightly better

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Tuffsmurf@reddit

We had it for a little while. Probably because it was cheap.

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equal_poop@reddit

I remember having to eat cereal with this crap at Grandma's. Although it is basically a good decision in baking. You can't taste any difference in baking/cooking. I've used it in that essence several times and had no issues with it.

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Justasadgrandma@reddit

I've never had powdered milk. We had a milkman that delivered milk in glass bottles that were square. We had an insulated box by or front door.

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Please_Go_Away43@reddit

The only purpose for powdered milk is to improve cookies. By baking the cookies with it included (not drinking it next to the cookies)

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RedditSkippy@reddit

I know than sounds weird, but I have a jar of whole-milk powder that I stir into my tea at the office. It’s a lot more convenient than hauling in milk every week that’ll go bad.

Other than that, I think I’ve only used powdered milk occasionally for baking.

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NeverEatDawnSoap@reddit

My parents only bought powdered milk. I loved this as a kid and would easily drink a pitcher a day. Then I went to college and had the real thing- and realized how gross the powdered stuff is. Now I’ll only drink real milk.

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aluminumnek@reddit

Never had it

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flea_23@reddit

Oh I can still taste it! And it never seemed to get cold no matter how long it was in the refrigerator

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myopicpickle@reddit

It always tasted warm. My mom would add ice to a fresh jug of it, but that didn't cool down the taste. We were on a tight budget when I was a kid, until I was a teen, and we would get whole milk from a neighbor. That was amazing, skim the cream off and put that on cereal, yum!

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VictorEcho1@reddit

Yep. Was a staple in our neighbourhood in the mid 80s.

Mom used to mix it 50-50 with real milk.

A distinct horror was being at a friends house and his mom asking if we wanted a glass of milk then hearing the tap run and the clink of a spoon mixing in the milk powder.

We somehow got it in a big bag that came inside of a box. It was extra fine powder and liked it just sit on top of the water.

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SMBamberger@reddit

I asked my mom once why she bought it and she admitted it wasn’t cheaper than regular milk but she got in the habit of buying. I always thought it was okay, mostly because I didn’t know anything else until I was a teenager.

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labboy70@reddit

I loathe powdered milk.

The only thing that makes Carnation Nonfat Instant Milk even close to drinkable for me is if it’s ice cold.

My Mom and Dad always had a box of it in the family emergency supplies.

I was more worried about having to drink warm instant milk after a disaster than the damage from the disaster itself.

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redditwinchester@reddit

Mom did half powdered milk, half regular milk.

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PracticalApartment99@reddit

I’ve learned that it doesn’t taste so bad if you use it to stretch your milk, mixing it half and half.

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Lazy_Negotiation4133@reddit

Nope. That’s what my mom did. Could still taste the difference.

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EducatedBarbarian@reddit

I had to and I hated it.
Powdered milk has gotten infinitely better over the years though. I had to have it when I was living in a remote place as an adult and it was actually drinkable.

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gdubh@reddit

Fiddy six and I’ve never tasted it.

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NewHandle3922@reddit

We only used it when we went camping in the summer. Meh! I survived.

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Queasy-Extension6465@reddit

I had a friend growing up, they had older parents and only used powdered milk. They owned an off grid type second property on a lake. Since they could only use that kind of milk up there they also used in the big city as well.

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MishmoshMishmosh@reddit

Ha! I was just thinking about this

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saltydancemom@reddit

My grandma used it for baking, but we drank raw milk from the farm growing up and lived to tell about it.

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Dangerous_Patient621@reddit

Oh, no. We were poor, but that's where my parents drew the line. Give us that gub'mint cheese, but no powdered milk.

My best friend's mom, she did the powdered milk. Ugh. Overnight stays at his place were ruined the next morning by off-brand breakfast cereal soaked in sadness.

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Lazy_days23@reddit

I didn’t grow up with it but I use it sometimes. When I backpack or camp I’ll take powered milk with granola for breakfast. I rarely drink milk these days so sometimes I’ll use it in a recipe that calls for milk.

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Regulus3333@reddit

Nope, but plenty of government cheese. Kill someone with that block

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alwayssearching117@reddit

I remember Mom having some on hand in case of snow events.

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Strong-Street-3167@reddit

We did 1/2 milk and 1/2 powdered milk. Four kids and we lived 20 minutes from the nearest grocery store, so Mom made it stretch.

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Jordangander@reddit

Very useful stuff if you get sprayed by OC often.

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Glittering-Eye2856@reddit

My Mom. We were poor and up until I was like 8, it was powdered milk or water. 😑

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PeterPunksNip@reddit

It was practical for a quick breakfast before school in my coffee. And it ensured we always had milk handy. Not bad, but I was growing up in Switzerland, so we had a quality powdered milk.

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fsckitnet@reddit

We had powdered milk and sometimes watered down evaporated milk in the 70s. No matter how long it was in the fridge it still tasted “warm”. I can’t explain it better than that. 🤢

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kriptikosmusic@reddit

My mom made it but I couldn’t drink it. Powdered milk and spam. 🥴

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Much-Chef6275@reddit

OH MY GOD! Powdered milk was the bane of my childhood existence! It tasted like CRAP white water! I LOVED getting real milk in 1/2 pint cartons at school.

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DizzyLead@reddit

When I was a small child I lived in the Philippines, and back then powdered milk was more easily available and more affordable than “real” milk. On the other hand, I feel that powdered milk in the Philippines (as well as other countries) was different, full-cream or filled (with vegetable fat) milk, rather than the nonfat “dry milk” more often found here in the States. That powdered milk was probably not healthy, but it made for a nice snack when eaten in spoonfuls out of a cup, sometimes mixed with “Milo” (a chocolate powdered malt beverage, kind of like a more granular Ovaltine).

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Octavia9@reddit

As a dairy farm kid, sometimes the main food we had was milk. Not much else but there was always enough milk to drown in.

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thecasualnuisance@reddit

Meadow Fresh.

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Equivalent_Public_41@reddit

My mother would buy a gallon of whole milk and make a gallon of the powdered stuff. Then mix the two together. It wasn't really noticeable then.

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HLOFRND@reddit

I haven’t tasted it in 40 years and just thinking about it brings that acrid taste back.

Just awful, awful shit.

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delulu4drama@reddit

I just had some grainy flashbacks…🥛

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TaxiLady69@reddit

My stepfather would make us drink powdered milk, but he would buy half and half for his coffee.

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HuckleberryDizzy2364@reddit

we use it in the lab

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Macropixi@reddit

I think it occasionally got used in baking

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emememaker73@reddit

I didn't have to drink reconstituted powdered milk, but there was always some in the pantry. Just in case we ran out of the real stuff, I guess.

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rottenbox@reddit

When my dad and step mom moved in together she brought some. It may have been a partial package of unknown age. I don't think we ever used it and eventually it got tossed.

I've only ever used it in emergency situations in remote camps, and then only in coffee. And that's after we ran out of milk and condensed milk for coffee. Maybe it is evaporated milk, not condensed. It's in a can and not sweet. Not something I ever shop for besides my wife asking for a can for baking once or twice a year.

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emememaker73@reddit

Baking might have been the reason my mother had powdered milk. I can't recall ever seeing use it, though.

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28Widget@reddit

It was gray-ish.

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Commercial_Okra7519@reddit

I’ve never had it but I have bought it because for baking bread, powdered milk hugely improves it.

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Key-Regret-7812@reddit

It wasn't bad with Nesquick or Swiss Miss in it.

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Beautiful-Habit-825@reddit

I remember my mom buying this when I was quite young. Maybe that's why I don't like milk?

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IllustratorWeird5008@reddit

Was the WORST tasting, actually vomited at the dinner table, last time anyone tried to serve me that slop, arg, I can still remember exactly what it tastes like 🤮

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gingerjaybird3@reddit

I did - gross

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Curious_Instance_971@reddit

I drank it in college

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RCA2CE@reddit

Yes. I just remembered we always ate instant mashed potatoes too. That is so nasty.

All the processed foods they jammed down my face, I don't know how we are still alive. They'd top that junk off with a stick of Margarine, ugh.

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