Evaporated milk

Evaporated milk, known in some countries as "unsweetened condensed milk", is a shelf-stable canned cow’s milk product where about 60% of the water has been removed from fresh milk. It differs from sweetened condensed milk, which contains added sugar. Sweetened condensed milk requires less processing to preserve since the added sugar inhibits bacterial growth. The production process involves the evaporation of 60% of the water from the milk, followed by homogenization, canning, and heat-sterilization. Evaporated milk takes up half the space of its nutritional equivalent in fresh milk. When the liquid product is mixed with a proportionate amount of water (150%), evaporated milk becomes the rough equivalent of fresh milk. This makes evaporated milk attractive for some purposes as it can have a shelf life of months or even years, depending upon the fat and sugar content. This made evaporated milk very popular before refrigeration as a safe and reliable substitute for perishable fresh milk, as it could be shipped easily to locations lacking the means of safe milk production or storage. In the 1920s and 1930s, evaporated milk began to be widely commercially available at low prices. The Christian Diehl Brewery, for instance, entered the business in 1922, producing Jerzee brand evaporated milk as a response to the Volstead Act. Several clinical studies from that time period suggested that babies fed evaporated milk formula thrived as well as breastfed babies. Modern guidelines from the World Health Organization consider breastfeeding, in most cases, to be healthier for the infant because of the colostrum in early milk production, as well as the specific nutritional content of human breast milk. Evaporated milk is made from fresh, homogenized milk from which 60% of the water has been removed. After the water has been removed, the product is chilled, stabilized, sterilized and packaged. It is commercially sterilized at 240–245 °F (115–118 °C) for 15 minutes.