What a scary thought, especially with Halloween right around the corner. If I had a candy bar for every time I’ve heard someone say something terrible about powdered milk, well, I’d be one fat lady. Yet even though I hear this so frequently, I’m still shocked that many people refuse to include powdered milk in their food storage programs. It offers far too much nutrition and increasing versatility in food preparation options to be disregarded.
Of course, the primary objection voiced is that powdered milk tastes terrible, unless you spend a lot of money for the expensive stuff. But what nobody tells you is that after a few years, the expensive stuff won’t taste much better than the cheaper offerings. And what most people won’t say, whether because it’s hard to believe or some other reason, is that powdered milk—even the cheap stuff—can be doctored up to taste really good.
The next greatest objection to storing powdered milk is the expense—it’s one of the most expensive food storage products, and becomes even more so when people refuse to drink it and throw it away. What most people don’t realize, because they haven’t done the math, is that powdered milk can be much cheaper than fresh milk, depending on the vendor. Right now, the price at the Home Storage Center or online at https://store.churchofjesuschrist.org/usa/en/nonfat-dry-milk/5638680711.p is $64.80. Even with factoring in $3.00 for shipping, that works out to about $2.82 per gallon of milk. That’s almost a dollar less per gallon than what I am currently paying in the grocery store.
However, powdered milk isn’t just for drinking, although it can also be used to make an emergency baby formula. There are loads of reasons to store a generous supply of it, even if you don’t drink milk.
The first reason is for making Magic Mix, the primary ingredient of which is powdered milk. Magic Mix is used in making all those cream soups—cream of chicken, celery, mushroom, tomato, as well as pudding and hamburger helper dishes. Banana Cream Pie, fudgesicles, hmmm, hmmm, good.
Then there’s SOS Mix, which offers lower fat and gluten-free options for making the cream soups and hamburger helper (but doesn’t work in desserts).
Both of these mixes are easily put together and save so much money over buying cans of soup and packages of hamburger helper. And they are a whole lot healthier. Plus you know exactly what is in them.
The ability to make yogurt is another important reason for storing a really good supply of powdered milk. Not only is fresh yogurt a great way to get probiotics into your system and keep your gut healthy, it can also be used to make cream cheese—really good cream cheese! And even if you use cheap powdered milk, you can’t detect any off taste in either the yogurt or the cream cheese. Yogurt also offers a nice change of pace for breakfast and can be used to make smoothies or other beverages and even frozen for frozen yogurt treats. Calpico is also quite refreshing.
Powdered milk is also a great addition to bread dough, helping impart a softer crumb and texture to bread. But it’s not just used in making bread. You can also make your own pancake and biscuit mixes with it, as well as use it to make absolutely divine caramel or buttermilk syrup for pancakes and waffles as well as desserts.
TEOTWAWKI probably isn’t going to be all that fun, but it doesn’t mean we have to feel like we’re eating nothing but rice and beans. Including a generous supply of powdered milk in our food storage—and learning how to use it—will make TEOTWAWKI a lot more enjoyable for our families.
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