How To Turn Leftover Evaporated Milk Into Regular Milk

There's a reason you should always keep evaporated milk in your pantry. It's essential to homemade favorites like magic cookie bars, plus, it offers a clever, inexpensive way to stock up on shelf-stable milk you can use in an emergency. But this knowledge can be useful outside emergency situations, as well. 

Evaporated milk is just ordinary milk with much of the water cooked out of it, so it's fairly easy to dilute it with a bit of water and use it just like milk from the carton. That means that instead of throwing away leftover evaporated milk, you can simply mix it with an equal amount of water and enjoy it over cereal, in your coffee, or in hot cocoa. So if you have a quarter cup of evaporated milk left over, mix it with a quarter cup of water. Once mixed, store it in an airtight container in your refrigerator, just as you would regular milk.

Dilution doesn't change how long properly stored evaporated milk lasts after opening — you still need to use it within five days. And while turning it back into regular milk gives you more options, you still may not want to use the evaporated milk in just anything.  

The 1-to-1 dilution ratio does produce results that work as a stand-in for everything from 1% to whole milk. But the process of evaporation fundamentally changes the nature of the milk. To make it shelf-stable, manufacturers gently cook off roughly 60% of the water content, then put it through homogenization and sterilization processes. After canning, it's slightly darker in color than refrigerated milk. That's because, despite gentle heating, the milk caramelizes slightly during the evaporation process. This means evaporated milk naturally tastes slightly sweeter than ordinary milk, so it's best to use milk reconstituted from the evaporated variety when that slight sweetness won't get in the way, such as smoothies, desserts, breads and pastries, oatmeal, or even your morning coffee.