Question re: powdered milk

Nido

Put powdered mild in cup first, add 2 tbls water mix well add more water and granola. Stir mixture.

Nido +1  No Brainer.

You are talking about a can of dehydrated milk that was opened and re-sealed, and that is over a year old, yes?

I doubt elevation plays a role.  My guess is that you are using it differently.  For instance perhaps at home you are sprinkling the milk powder in with a spoon versus dumping it in from a little bag while backpacking?  Dan’s suggestion of dissolving it first in a bit of water then adding the rest of the water is a good one… he probably adapted it from his mother’s gravy recipe :)

Similar problem with powdered coconut milk I use with cold water and cereals for whatever reason.  Thinking about adding the powdered “ milk” to individual dry cereal portions in secure ziplocks for each day and letting the motion of hiking break up the clumps everyday on trail.

Then one final shake before adding water (securing the zip lock of course)

+1 Dan’s method.  Works every time. I do this for all powdered food that gets rehydrated, not just Nido.

Dan:  I’ll definitely try that approach.

Ben:  No, same method each time.  Use spoon to scoop out a spoonful, drop in and stir.   Just found it odd that it dissolved fine here at home (and in the Winds last year) but not in Montana.

This year:

Last year:

“Dan’s suggestion of dissolving it first in a bit of water then adding the rest of the water is a good one… he probably adapted it from his mother’s gravy recipe :)”

I learned that from making White Sauce (Bechamel)

Works well when diluting silicone with mineral spirit. Same idea mix a little at a time and add and it will work, dump all of the mineral spirit in one go and it will not.

When saving a partial package till the next year include a small silica desiccant pack inside of it, might help prevent what you experienced.

https://www.amazon.com/Packs-1GrCotton-20pk-Silica-Desiccants-Packets/dp/B004FC5VT4

I like Nido, but I think it starts to taste funny after a while. I never manage to use a whole can before it goes off. It looks fine, maybe a bit clumpier, but  has an icky taste and smell. Maybe your brand is doing something similar? The low-fat crap never tastes different because it never tastes like anything!

“low-fat crap” :)  Hear hear!

When hiking: full-fat, full-calorie, nothing removed or reduced, real food all the way. Makes it easier to shop and pack too.

Karen:  I still have the can and it dissolves and tastes fine here at home.

I wonder if perhaps the mineral content of the water could be a factor?

Ok now I’m curious. What variables could be a play here?

• temperature
• elevation
• mineral content of water
• contamination of the pot (leftover olive oil?)
• absorbed moisture?

Hmmm, contamination theory is something I hadn’t thought of – I’m going to test that to see if that could have possibly been it.  Any leftover residue would have been very small amounts so I doubt that’s it, but it’s an interesting theory and easily tested.

looks contaminated. What’s floating in there?

That’s the powdered milk – unless you are referring to the tea bag that’s still in there.   I believe on this day I tried to put the milk in first and then pour the hot water on to see if that would help dissolve the milk better.  As you can see, that didn’t work either.

I tested the contamination theory this evening by putting three drops of olive oil in the cup, wiping it around with a small piece of paper towel, rinsing the cup and then adding hot water, tea bag and powdered milk.  The milk dissolved fine.   I then discarded that, added hot water and two drops of olive oil directly to the water and then added the milk with a similar result, it dissolved without issue.    I thought this possibility had the potential to be the solution, but it was not to be.

I’ve seen this happen with the non-dairy liquid creamer cups out in the field as well (think Moos), but not consistently. I feel like it is either something related to the technique used to add it to the drink or the water contents.

2 things are at play here:

1. The milk is getting old. Older dry milk sucks. When you open it, if it is full fat you MUST keep it chilled after for best preservation till trail time. Nonfat or lowfat isn’t such a huge issue. Having said that….using it up fast is the best thing you can do.
2. Hard water is a real issue. Where I live now, our well water is very, very hard (it is purged daily to just remove the heavy iron) I find hard water messes up some cooking – and with cleaning as well. So yes, your Montana water could have messed with it.

With Nido we find it easy to mix if it is mixed with the dry food first.  Granola, instant oatmeal, powdered coffee (VIA), whatever.  No need to fiddle with the 2 T of water mixing thing.  The dry food separates all the powder particles so that they don’t clump.  If you are making fresh coffee and you use sugar you can mix the milk powder with the sugar.  Cold water or hot, doesn’t matter.  Another thing we discovered this last season is that adding powdered “heavy cream” makes the Nido taste better as coffee cream.  I don’t know what industrial process makes milk fat into a powder, but they say it’s 72% butterfat.  All this stuff–the Nido, the cream powder, some soy milk powder we had for a while for the vegans on our trips–all this stuff stays in the freezer at all times when not on a trip.  No off flavors, yellowing, or souring that way.

Have you tried Milkman Instant Lowfat Dry Milk.

Ingredients: nonfat milk, cream, lactose, soy lecithin, vitamin A palmitate and vitamin D3, tocopherols (a natural source of vitamin E to protect flavors).
Allergen information: milk, soy.

Have used Nido.and prefer Milkman Instant Lowfat Dry Milk for all of my cooking/baking and have never run into the issues mentioned above. Looking at the Nutritional Data of each you can see the Milkman Instant Lowfat Dry Milk with less fat is a different “critter”.

Ingredients:  Whole Milk,  Soy Lecithin, Vitamin C*,  (Sodium Ascorbate), Iron* (Ferric Pyrophosphate), Zinc Sulfate*, Vitamin A Acetate*, Vitamin D3*, (Cholecalciferol).

Allergen Info; Contains Milk and soy ingredients.

I go through about two large cans of Nido (1.6 kg) per year, mostly for adding to tea at home and (until recently) at work. In both locations, it just sits on a shelf in the original container or a Ziploc twist-loc jar.

I’ve also Ziploc bagged Nido with instant tea for backpacking, and thrown it in a sealed bucket in the basement for well over a year before use.

Never had any trouble with yellowing, off flavors, or weird little lumps like the photos. We have pretty hard water at home, no water softener.

Like other people discovered, Nido dissolves best for me when pre-mixed with something else. Even a little something else, like 1 tablespoon of instant iced tea with ~4 tablespoons of Nido. I like a little tea with my milk :-)

Maybe I’m lucky.

— Rex

Store your opened Nido Cans in the freezer.  They will last longer.

Where are you getting Milkman from? I’ve been meaning to to try it for a very long time. Seems last time I looked it was considerably more expensive than Nido.