When we started on our preparedness journey, I tried to be practical. I didn’t even know what a “prepper” was.
In the beginning I made a list of things I used everyday. Literally from the time I woke up: water, meds, t.p, coffee, toothpaste, toothbrush and so on and that is what I started storing. You know, store what you use, use what you store. Then I found I wasn’t alone.
This is the journey of storing milk. For my first batch, I used my Oster dehydrator (no longer available, but I also like the Presto dehydrator). I purchased these nifty fruit roll-up trays and gently poured one cup of milk to each tray.
Something is not level here. Not sure if it is the dehydrator or the counter. So I kept turning the trays around to even out the milk.
This took about 12 hours. Longer than I expected. Note the flakiness and the “goopy” parts.
For the second batch of milk, I used the same method by putting the fruit roll-up trays in my Excalibur 9 Tray dehydrator.
I have to share, I took me while to save up for the Excalibur dehydrator, but I find it to be worth it’s weight in gold. Seriously. The main advantage is it’s size & the fact you are able to control the temperatures.
Tip: I would suggest that you put the round tray on your Excalibur tray INSIDE the dehydrator & then pour the milk into the tray.
Um, I prepped one on my counter top, tried to carry it over and milk spilled everywhere. My furbabies were very happy. I wasn’t. Then I had to mop my floor.
Related: How to Make Cheese from Powdered Milk
Temp: Set the temperature between 125-130 degrees (F) and dehydrate until dry and flaky. It takes several hours, so be patient.
Again, it wasn’t level, maybe it’s my house. So, every twenty minutes or so, I turned the trays around to more evenly distribute the milk. Turned out better this time.
When each batch came out there were several areas that were “goopy”. So I took my Pampered Chef scraper and gently removed all the dried milk, re-trayed & dehydrated a little more.
After the milk was nice and flaky, I crumbled up the pieces.
Next the pieces were put in the blender.
It really is that simple. 7 cups of instant ½ & ½.
After the jar was full, I vacuum sealed the jar for long term storage.
It takes very little time, but worth it when it comes to minimizing my storage space.
This article was written by Perky Prepping Gramma and first appeared on perkypreppinggramma.blogspot.com.
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How long does the milk last if stored? Did you use whole milk or cream?
it takes way longer than it takes to make jerky. for the time and the puny results it seriously is not worth it.
John: This would be more interesting to those who own dairy animals. niio
why not just buy Instant Dry Milk in a store? You can grind it as tiny as you like.
The author said they tried several and they couldn’t find one they liked
we have been using MORNING MOO FOR OVER 10YEARS WE LOVE IT IT TASTE GREAT! WE ORDER UT FROM SAM’s
Freeze drying seems a lot easier and you can get a much larger quantity done at a time
I would think because it tastes like instant milk—yuck!
Patty: Make cheese, then. We want to try the drying with yogurt. niio
Cost
Powered milk has an expiration on it
All they offer in the store is low-fat or 2% and it is very expensive. Also, as with any storage processed stuff we do, we know exactly what is in the food since we did it.
In the article on dehydrating ‘milk’, the author talks about dehydrating milk, but near the end of the article, she says she ended up with “7 cups of instant ½ & ½.” Did she dehydrate milk or ½ & ½?
Good question, I had the same question.
I went to the actual post. The link is at the bottom of THIS post. She has another post about how to reconstitute the milk dehydrated here. She mentions that she only uses whole and 1/2 &1/2…so she probably forgot to mention that this post was about drying the 1/2 & 1/2…The process would be identical no matter which or what kind of ‘milk’ you are using. Just FYI: she quit blogging in 2017. (no posts after that)
How long does this last? And how do you rehydrate the milk?
I am going to try to make my own milk flakes
Do I pour the milk in the trays?and can I use any milk like plant based milk
More of a question than a comment.
“7 cups of instant 1/2 & 1/2”.
What milk were you using, store bought whole, or 1/2 & 1/2, or raw milk ? And will the milk fat in the 1/2 & 1/2 & raw milk dehydrate also ?
How long can you safely store this dehydrated milk?
I’ve been buying powdered milk for years. My wife bakes with it, mostly.
How is the author’s milk any better?
I’ve been buying it for years to bake with it as well. But mostly I like using it as creamer in my coffee.
How do you vacuum seal the jar?
Some vacuum sealers come with a jar sealing attachment. Check the instruction book for your vacuum sealer if you still have it. You may find out that you can seal mason jars with it.
If you don’t have the can attachment, you can just use the plastic bag on your vacuum sealer.
The great part of doing it in bags is that if you seal them flat,
They take up much less space by stacking them instead of all those bulky jars in your pantry or storage container. 😉
Granny, do you mix it with yogurt, first? we make our own. Seethe the milk, and when it cools to about 100 F, add a quart of yogurt. Cover and let stand overnight. This is a traditional sweet yogurt. It can be used in coffee and so on, where sweet milk is needed. Gonna have to try to dry it to see if it remains yogurt. niio
Once again, Red, I learned something new from you. I have used seethe for most of my life but only in regard to emotions. I have never heard the term used in conjunction with cooking. I’ll bet my Grandmother knew the term in connection with cooking. Thanks for enlarging my vocabulary.
LLC: It is an apt description for a slow boil 🙂 Much thanks, and you keep teaching! niio
red, a bit off topic, but I notice you sign off each post with niio. Would you please tell me what that means?
I have wondered about dehydrating milk. I have bought the dehydrated stuff to use for baking mostly, and i don’t use a lot of it, so that small bag, while expensive, lasts me a good long time. My husband likes to drink milk now and again, but sometimes he doesn’t drink it up fast enough, so I think I’ll try dehydrating what he doesn’t use up and see how it works for us.
NIIO – Notify-Identify-Inspect-Observe
(I had to look it up, too.)
Omega: Not in this case but it works! Good job on the research. niio, no caps, Walk in God’s beauty. But, yo, yours works great, too ! 🙂 niio!
mbl: Make yogurt and then make cheese. That’s what we do. niio (no caps) means Walk in God’s beauty. It’s Iroquois from the Cherokee mostly. My grandmother liked to tell us that just before she made good use of her steel reinforced hairbrush with automatic tongue lashing. niio!
I think what happened is that someone edited for brevity and then forgot something.
I have used Gossner shelf stable milk for years and I cant tell the difference between it and the regular milk I normally buy. They make it in whole, 2% and skim and its good for at least a year. Or the “Sell By/Use By date us usually about 10 months to a year. Might not be as long as dry whole milk or the other kinds but its still nice to have a quart in the pantry in case I run out.
I contacted Excalibur and asked what dehydrator they would use for liquids and why, the response from Stephanie Rays at Excalibur is that none of their products are able to dehydrate liquids and she suggested a freeze dryer.
Marsha: I live in Arizona, so drying isn’t a problem, but have you dried using a shallow pan and fan? I did try to make soy sauce and the an was too deep, and gnats got in. Next batch, I’ll have the solar food dryer up and running. It’s a shallow box with sheet metal over that, leading up to the dryer box. We even got a roll of metal fly screen for it. niio
I’m going to try this with Eggnog then reconstitute it with Kahlua!
Does anyone know the proportions to rehydrate the milk? Or is just trial and error? Thank you.
Sandy and Mole: How much milk was dehydrated? Portion it from that. For cheese, I would probably use less water. niio
Thank you for getting back to me. I’m still dehydrating.
Mole and Sandy: this gives how much water things will lose.
https://formerlynmurbanhomesteader.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/5/0/22509786/food_-_dehydrated_freeze_dried_to_fresh_equivalents_and_rehydration_tables_new_site.pdf
niio
Rainbolt44, that’s an excellent suggestion! Cheers! 🍺 🍻 🥃
What are the proportions for rehydration or is it trial and error? Thanks.
The drawback I see to this is that milk sours when warmed… and for several hours… yuck. While fine for cooking, I can’t imagine it’s much better than packaged dry milk. (I’ve got a freeze dryer, so I’ll stick to that when I can find milk at a good price.)
WE HAVE BEEN STORING AND USING MORNING MOO FOR OVER 10 YEARS We and all our GRANDKIDS LOVE IT
As far as vacuum sealing, wonder if just putting in a mason jar with a lid would serve almost same purpose. Works great for storing fruit.
Try the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer. Much easier.
Yes. I just got done freeze drying another batch of 2% milk from our dairy. I put 2 cups in each tray and seal the finished product in mason jars. When I need to use it, I rehydrate with a little less than 2 cups water right in the mason jar and refrigerate. I have some from 2 years ago and still good. It should stay good for many years with a good seal