What do Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings, Howie Dorough from the Backstreet Boys, and the evaporated milk from your grandma’s pantry have in common? The answer is that they deserve much more of the limelight than they’ve been granted. Like Gamgee’s unfettered loyalty to Frodo and Dorough’s ineffable falsetto range, this unassuming milk in a can has plenty to write home about.
For starters, it’s shelf-stable—you can have a can or two in your cabinet for months at a time. You can also avoid gambling on a sus carton of milk and mix a can of evaporated milk with water instead to create a quick fix to your dairy needs. It’s an ingredient that imparts both flavor and function to everything from coquito and tres leches to mac and cheese and potatoes.
The name evaporated milk reflects the processing method that’s used to make it. It starts as plain old cow’s milk, either whole or skim. Then the milk simmers at a low heat until about 60 percent of the water is evaporated. The slightly thickened milk is then sealed in shelf-stable cans.
But what even is evaporated milk?
As its name suggests, evaporated milk is a dairy product made by removing about 60% of the water from cow’s milk through a slow heating process. Once the water is removed, the mixture, which is about 7% fat, is homogenized into an emulsion, then canned and sterilized.
This multistep process didn’t just come to be with a flick of an industrial magic wand or a happy accident, but through several breakthroughs over the course of multiple decades.
Like instant coffee, Cheetos, and M&M’s, evaporated milk was also a by-product of war. As Napoleon’s conquests spread across Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, easily transportable and spoil-resistant food became imperative to feeding his expansive army. But technology was lagging far behind the emperor’s ambitions. So, according to the Evaporated Milk Association’s archives, the French government announced a lofty prize of 12,000 Francs to anyone who could devise a method to successfully extend the life cycle of food.
After 15 years of tinkering in his tiny kitchen on the outskirts of Paris, a confectioner named Nicholas Appert conceptualized the very first iteration of evaporated milk on January 30, 1810. His process involved “reducing a given quantity of milk to one third its original bulk by boiling in an open kettle” and then sealing it in a corked bottle and heating it again in a hot water bath. As the archives note, Appert’s invention was noteworthy not just in its originality but also in that he essentially pasteurized milk long before the time of Louis Pasteur, knowing nothing about microbiology.
Appert’s evaporated milk was the genesis of a tapered path to the canned version we see in stores today. The next phase of the evolution took place in 1853 when an American inventor named Gail Borden filed a patent for evaporating milk in a vacuum. Borden used this method to combine evaporated milk with sugar to create sweetened condensed milk, an essential field ration during yet another conflict—the American Civil War.
But it was a Swiss man named John B. Meyenberg who realized the unsweetened potential of evaporated milk. When Meyenberg’s sugar-free canned milk idea got little traction in his native land, he traveled across the Atlantic to Highland, Illinois. Here, along with a group of Swiss dairy farmers, he established the foremost evaporated milk plant in the US and the world. In 1884, Meyenberg patented “a process of sterilization by steam under pressure while the cans are agitated,” and the following year, the first canned evaporated milk was commercially manufactured. Today Borden’s method of vacuum evaporation and Meyenberg’s process of pressurized sterilization remain key foundations of the industry.
There was still one more problem to solve. The evaporation process caused the fat and water to separate, leading to an unemulsified final product. As a solution, homogenization was introduced in 1909, which took evaporated milk to new heights. The product, now emulsified as milk should be, not only had a significantly longer shelf life but was much more appealing to consumers in its amalgamated state.
During World War I, evaporated milk went to combat again, this time with the armed forces of the United States and its allies. It was “hailed as a boon to the fighting man.” After the war, it lived on through the discharged soldiers who continued to use the product in their civil lives.
What is Evaporated Milk?
FAQ
Why is condensed milk called that?
What is the difference between canned milk and evaporated milk?
Is evaporated milk healthier than condensed milk?
Why do people drink evaporated milk?
Is evaporated milk the same as condensed milk?
Evaporated milk is canned cow’s milk and a liquid. It is sometimes called unsweetened condensed milk. Evaporated milk is not the same thing as condensed milk. Condensed milk is also reduced by 60 percent, but it is heavily sweetened, making it thick and syrupy.
What is evaporated milk?
(a) Description. Evaporated milk is the liquid food obtained by partial removal of water only from milk. It contains not less than 6.5 percent by weight of milk fat, not less than 16.5 percent by weight of milk solids not fat, and not less than 23 percent by weight of total milk solids.
Is evaporated milk sweetened or sweetened?
However, if diluted prior to baking, cans of evaporated milk can result in an almost identical replication of the usual baked goods. Condensed milk is sweetened, which is why it’s also often referred to as sweetened condensed milk, whereas evaporated milk has no added sweeteners whatsoever.
When did evaporating milk start?
The next phase of the evolution took place in 1853 when an American inventor named Gail Borden filed a patent for evaporating milk in a vacuum. Borden used this method to combine evaporated milk with sugar to create sweetened condensed milk, an essential field ration during yet another conflict—the American Civil War.