How To Substitute Evaporated Milk For Regular Milk

At the end of World War II, Americans were downing over 700 cups of milk each year. Nearly 67 years later, that had dropped to less than half that amount (and the industry is in serious trouble if younger generations don't make drinking milk cool again soon). So, if you're cooking or baking and something calls for fresh milk which you don't have in your fridge, rather than head to the grocery store, you could just substitute evaporated milk (not to be confused with shelf-stable milk, which is quite different) from your pantry.

Evaporated milk begins its life as regular fresh cow's milk, but then it goes through a heating process that removes nearly two-thirds of the water in it. In order to replace fresh milk with the evaporated kind, you'll check the recipe for how much regular milk it requires then add half that amount of evaporated milk and for the other half you'll use water. Therefore, if a recipe calls for 2 cups of milk, you'll use 1 cup of the evaporated kind, and 1 cup of water. Not only does this mean you don't have to worry about keeping milk in your fridge for spur-of-the-moment recipes, evaporated milk is typically quite inexpensive. It also comes in a variety of fat options: everything from skim to 3.25%.

Whether you're baking or cooking, if your recipe calls for fresh cow's milk and you don't have either the real thing or evaporated milk, there are plenty of other dairy substitutes (you ought not to be wary of dairy, after all) that can stand in, like heavy cream. If you've got a little container of heavy cream hanging out in your fridge, you can dilute it exactly the same way you would evaporated milk (with half cream, half water) to equal the full amount of milk needed.

Another good bet is half-and-half, which is still rich, but not as rich as heavy cream, so there is no diluting necessary. Instead, use a 1:1 ratio in place of milk. If you have sour cream leftover from taco night, you can use that, but be aware that you might want to dilute it with water. Also, it will add a tang to whatever you're using it for. Plain yogurt is another substitute for milk, and like sour cream, it can be made runnier with water.