Differences & How They Are Used in Recipes.
Canned milks have existed before refrigeration and they continue to have delicious reasons to still be in your pantry shelves. Here are the differences between evaporated milk versus condensed milk, plus how to use each in your next recipes.
Evaporated Milk versus Condensed Milk
Evaporated Milk
Evaporated milk was invented at a time when refrigerators were a luxury and far too expensive for the average income. Families needed a calcium-rich beverage for the health of their children.
Evaporated milk was the solution as it slowly simmered fresh milk until 60% of the water content naturally evaporated to produce a creamy, thick milk consistency with all its nutritive parts. It was then homogenized, sterilized, and packaged in cans.
You can use evaporated milk in drinks, desserts, pies, puddings, and even curries, soups, chowders, mashed potatoes, or mac and cheese. It is often a substitute for recipes using cream or coconut milk.
Condensed Milk
Condensed milk is only similar in that it’s on the same supermarket aisle as evaporated milk and its process starts out as evaporated milk. And yet it is completely different because it contains sugar, a lot of it.
After the water evaporation process, about 40 to 45% of sugar is added to condense and sweetened the milk. The sugar content prevents bacterial growth which means it does not need to be heat-sterilized.
You can use condensed milk in desserts like bars, pies, fudge, puddings, or even mix with coffee and tea.
Fun fact: If you properly submerged a can of condensed milk in a pot and slowly simmer it, you will open up a can of dulce de leche. But if the pot is not filled up, the can of condensed milk can burst up and threw the roof!
Also, note that recipes calling for condensed milk and evaporated milk cannot be interchanged simply because of the sweetened milk versus unsweetened milk.
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