Shelf stable milk pouch

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I know, I know…when you think shelf-stable milk pouches you think of something like this. (Yeah, it’s cheap humour…I’m not above being low.) I was up at CostCo the other day and beheld this:

Basically, ‘juice boxes’ of whole milk. No refrigeration required. I’ve talked about this before…the folks at Parmalat built an entire empire on UHT pasteurized products. Although not available everywhere, Parmalot milk can be found on Amazon. Problem is, it is quite difficult to find anything smaller than 32 oz. Oh they  make it, yes…but just hard to find. Why would you want the smaller? Because in a grid-down situation you may not need all 32 oz of milk and without refrigeration it sure ain’t gonna keep safely terribly long.

The stuff I found at CostCo is available (also on Amazon) in 8 oz. servings. That’s more suitable for a bowl of breakfast cereal or mixing with your ‘instant breakfast’ powder.

Personally, I don’t really like milk…but several recipes I do like call for it, and corn flakes taste pretty weird without it. So, for me, someone who uses miniscule amounts of moo juice, these are handy sizes.

The more savvy amongst you may ask, “Zero, why not powdered milk?”. A valid question. The answer is….fat. Most powdered milke products are reduced fat. Skim, low-fat, 2%, whatever….it is not whole milk. And although I suppose someone can get used to it, powdered milk tastes lousy and low-fat powdered milk is even worse. See, fat is something that does not lend itself to long-term storage. As a result, whole milk powder, when you can find it, isn’t as long-term as a milk powder that has less fat. But…who wants to drink low fat milk? Ugh.

Now, it took me a while but I did eventually discover powdered whole milk and it is surprisingly not difficult to find. However, it is most definitely not low fat milk..in fact it has about 7(!!!) times the fat of whole milk. My experience is that it is very rich. Very. Like drinking melted ice cream. Using more water than perhaps is recommended might bring it down a notch closer to real whole milk, but it is far more palatable (to me) than that powdered low-fat crap.

So if your the type who like to drink milk, or you’ve got a houseful of kids who you think need to, and you want to have something for when refrigeration is no longer an option, you can head up to CostCo and satisfy your lactose cravings with some reasonably-portioned packages of shelf stable whole milk.

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34 thoughts on “Shelf stable milk pouch”

  1. A few drops of pure vanilla added to powdered skim milk improves the taste.
    Also found Natrel shelf stable whole milk 32oz from amazon at 3$ a quart,

    • I would rather drink cow piss than milk from Amazon.
      Amazon is the enemy,.
      Never buy from the enemy. If you do, you are cutting your own throat.
      I will do without or pay more but those evil bastards will not get my money.
      You have to stand on principles. It is not always easy.

      • You’re cutting your own throat? Having the money to buy milk, not buying it, and then needing but not being able to get it fits that definition better. End up in that situation, and you’re likely to pay a heck of a lot more for your milk to a much more unscrupulous person.

        …First it was Sears. Then it was Wal-Mart. Who’s the next boogeyman?

        I stand by my principles as well; “Have what you need when you need it…”

  2. When the Vikings first came to the New World they tried to woo the natives with milk and honey, something they thought was primo liquid that everyone should enjoy. Turned out the native americans were all lactose intolerant, since their culture never thought to drink the tit juice of another mammal. They took it as the weird red heads in a big strange boat had poisoned them, hilarity ensued, in the form of sharp pointy things being hurled the vikings way.

    Milk: not for everyone. More than half of adults are lactose intolerant, may be higher with murderous Apaches. Could be an excellent barter item though.

  4. I’m both lactose intolerant and allergic to dairy proteins. In looking for decent tasting substitutes I found shelf stable unsweetened coconut milk (Simple Truth is the cheapest I’ve found) and canned coconut milk. Neither are good enough for drinking, but great for cooking. For the holidays I found a canned coconut milk recipe for eggnog – delicious!
    Finally found halfway decent cheese subs, but again, they work best in cooking.

      • I don’t usually buy it but find it rather tasty.
        Only thing that is a mystery to me is how they milk the almonds. I look at them under a magnifying glass and just could not find any teets.
        Maybe I got bag full of males ones..

    • Try the various coconut products that have added sugar. That seems to make a big difference for me. In some cases adding coconut cream to it may fix the drinking taste. No idea why, but some of the coconut drinks don’t taste as good as others. Possibly where it originates?

  5. What is the shelf life?

    I’ve found the powdered whole milk when used for cooking and baking recipes is wonderful. We use it for everyday baking because of the flavor improvement. We store the opened can in the refrigerator, and it can last a surprisingly long time that way.

  6. I discovered that the juice box milk, even the larger quart sizes, don’t really last that long; Even stored in a refrigerator, unopened, it goes bad after a year or two…

    The Nestle Nido brand dried whole milk is not too bad.

    • Yep that box juice milk isn’t very stable, my roommate and i were friends with one of the cooks when were stationed in Korea and we always ended up with crate loads of groceries after every exercise they used the field kitchen. That milk rarely lasted more than 2 months. The industrial sized boxes of juice concentrate were wonderful though.

  7. I group my food supplies into three groups- short, medium and long term. Milk products are short term ie 1-2 years. Instant milk taste and texture can be improved with canned evaporated milk. About 1/2 can per quart. Wife uses Nido for bread making. If no power for the ice box, you can use the remaining 1/2 can for cooking. Even if not called for, it adds calories and fats. I mixed it with some Mountain House Stroganoff and it made it better. I also made a desert using rice and sugar with a packet of Swiss Miss hot chocolate mixed in. The canned milk made it creamier. Don’t know if it really tasted good or if, at the end of day backpacking hike carrying 55lbs made it OK. Seems everything taste good after a day in the mountains.

    • I keep my UHT milk in a different location from my long and short term storage as I keep it rotated a 6-9 month period.

  8. I got started on UHT milk in Europe/Germany. It takes a little getting used to, but I had no problem. As long as it’s chilled, I like it as well as regular 2% for drinking. I get mine in 32 oz size at Dollar Tree for $1 each, that’s about 1/2 of what the Costco pricing is. But I can see the idea of paying more for smaller packaging.

    • Hey I was introduced to juice box milk in Germany too while in the Army. I agree 200% needs to be chilled!! I was buying it at Walmart when it was in stock. I could keep and rotate about a 6 month supply with what the kids ate with their cereal- funny thing they would rather have the Box milk than fresh when they were little. The 2% last a little long than the whole by a few months. Don’t stock any anymore since I moved to the country.

  9. Our costco only carries the low fat version of white milk. And our grocery stopped carrying the UHT liter boxes of whole…

    My experience has been 6 months on the shelf, and it will taste funny, longer than that and it turns to tapioca pearls. Super gross but probably not deadly.

    I keep the Nido on the shelf. My one taste test with Nido had it well inside the ‘acceptable’ range.

    Kids eat a lot of the chocolate version of that milk though, and it’s fine on cereal, as long as it’s not fruit loop 🙂

    n

  10. So when they coming put with shelf stable cereal. The stuff today gets stale after awhile. Funny. Years ago I wondered what they did with stale cereal. My parents and an uncle all worked for Kellogg’s, Post and Ralston Purina.
    I finally found out. It was sold at a huge discount to a supplier who then sent it to Africa. Guess they didn’t know the difference never having fresh cereal.

  11. The UHT taste can be improved by “aerating” it by just pouring between a couple of glasses a few times. Oh yeah, and keeping it really cold.. Personally I think it tastes pretty rank no matter what you do. But it does work well for cooking purposes.
    Daughter and grand daughter seem to have a lactose intolerance so…

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    • Yes !!!!!!

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      Don’t support the enemy.
      If every conservative would wake up and boycott them, it would seriously hurt their bottom line.

  14. All these memes would be funny, if he wasn’t a piece of shit communist who would just as soon see you dead than have to rule over you.

  16. When I was in the Coast Guard, the dispensing of “space milk” was a sure sign that we’d been underway too long! Powdered eggs and PBJ sandwiches were sure to follow!

    Space milk will do in a pinch, but it really doesn’t taste any better than powdered milk…

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