Saturday, March 9, 2013

Lattes & Milk for storage...

What was that? Storing lattes? Storing milk?

I am committed to storing what I eat & eating what I store.
When I was making the decisions about pressure canning milk products, I read up about the issue and asked specific people (bloggers) that I trusted if they canned milk or not. There are very few that I would completely trust their opinion. So, I knew there are established, long term canning, prepping bloggers that have canned & dehydrated milk.
Here is what I found in my research "What does the USDA actually say about the subject?".  What I encourage each person to do is to read both sides of the issue and determine what you believe is best for you & yours.
These are the types of milk I currently have in storage. Each has a purpose. I have tried each of them. These are used for cooking various foods.


I pressure canned milk & dehydrated my own milk. The reason is I actually use a lot of milk in cooking. Whole milk, half & half. That being said; I also get my milk & lattes for free, so I feel free to experiment more. 

For pressure canning of the milk; I used pints at 10# for 15 minutes. It has sort of a Parmalat taste to it. But wonderful for cooking. Since I am still in the testing phase, I plan to use it through out the year. So far I have used it 12 months out (100913). [edited]
Here are more specific directions for pressure canning milk. "White Stuff from Cows..."













For dehydration of the milk and the lattes I used the same process.
I poured 1 cup of latte (or milk) into a fruit roll-up tray while the tray was sitting in my Excalibur dehydrator.
I set the temperature at 125 (edited) degrees. For some reason it pooled to one side of the trays, so initially, every 1/2 hour or so, I carefully turned the trays around 180 degrees.



Once it was almost completely dry (somewhere between 10-12 hours) it looked mostly flaky with some slightly damp patches. Using a Pampered Chef cleaner/scrapper I released all the flakes and damp areas, re-trayed (all onto one tray at this point) them and continued to dehydrate until everything was completely dry.



Then I used the a blender to grind the flakes into small bits.
Then these flakes are vacuum sealed into quart canning jars, when I get enough.
I have rehydrated the lattes using a little over 13 teaspoons of dehydrated mix, adding hot liquid to make one cup.



 
The initial mixture for my lattes is 12 ounces of milk (½ & ½) and 8 shots of espresso. I like them strong. I did try dehydrating one batch with sweetener, which didn't work out well. Just wouldn't get completely dry.

To rehydrate I measured 13 tsps. into a jar and added enough boiling water to equal 1 cup. Mixed it up, strained the fats out, this is the end results.



Some of the items I used in this post: I work with Amazon Associates Program, where I earn a small percentage on items people purchase through my links. I only recommend items I have used and like & I appreciate your support.

    

4 comments:

  1. Question about the lattes, I'm a serious coffee person, so I'm wanting to know. First how do you get me free?

    Second. Do you think you could just dehydrate milky coffee in the same way? Basically like making your own instant coffee.

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    1. Lori,
      I haven't tried that, but I assume it would work.
      Oh and the free milk...I work at a fine purveyor of coffee and we get free drinks when we are working. I simply mark out a glass of milk for my drink that day.

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  2. You could dehydrate the milk/coffee, and then add dry sugar to the mix in storage.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That would work too. If you know that 13 tsp= latte without sweetness. Then you would add the amount of 'sugar to taste' to the mix/per Tsp, to get the right mix to 'Just Add Water". I think I would rather make a Cold coffee concentrate. figure out the milk/sugar content for a Latte. and then dehydrate or Can in Pints the concentrate necessary for the COFFEEEeeee fix needed. :D

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