Condensed milk, ew. What to substitute?
I just ran across a delicious recipe that calls for sweetened condensed milk, which I find barfulous. Should I substitute sour cream? whipping cream? milk and cornstarch? something else altogether?
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20 Comments:
Sweetened condensed milk is veeeerrrryyyy sweet, and substituting sour cream for it would be like subbing yogurt for chocolate. What is the recipe? That would help determine what would be an acceptable substitute.
juliebugsmama at 3:27PM on 01/07/09
julie is right we need more info. Just because you cannot bear to look at condensed milk doesn't mean the final product will not be good. I cannot stand to look at buttermilk but it does wonderful things to cakes, biscuits, pancakes and mashed potatoes.
Give us some recipe.
JerzeeTomato at 3:31PM on 01/07/09
Hmm...It sort-of reminds me of a vanilla protein shake with lots and lots and lots of sugar? I think it would depend on the reason why it's in the recipe?? That might help
hungrychristel at 3:35PM on 01/07/09
I've used whole milk yogurt in its place, when making pumpkin pie from scratch and I didn't want to taint my fresh pumpkin puree with canned milk. You might want to add more sugar to compensate, but of course that depends on what you're trying to make.
FoodieTots at 3:45PM on 01/07/09
Just to make sure everyone is writing about the same thing here:
the can that has nothing at all but regular old milk and regular old sugar in it. Right? The stuff that has absolutely nothing funky, artificial, unpronounceable or otherwise odd or unusual, right?
Certainly everyone is free to have their own food hang ups, though.
There isn't a really good substitute for condensed milk. You could slowly (very slowly or it'll burn) reduce a pot of milk by about 60% and add sugar.
You could also use powdered milk to thicken regular milk or water and add sugar to that (but I'm presuming you won't want to use powdered if you've got a problem with condensed). You could also add sugar to evaporated milk (but again, that's canned, too).
I guess, ultimately, in the finished recipe, the sweetened condensed milk isn't going to taste like it does out of the can....it will, in effect, be the same as if you added milk and sugar to your recipe and removed a lot of the water that was in the milk.
ccbweb at 3:54PM on 01/07/09
Drat, I can't get the "add link" function to work right. The phrase "delicious recipe" in my original post is clickable, and it's supposed to lead here:
http://www.seriouseats.com/talk/2009/01/emergency-cheese-question.html
...but it doesn't.
gentlyferal at 3:56PM on 01/07/09
For my money, condensed milk - with or without sugar - has a nasty processed flavor that I think comes from the long cooking required to reduce the water content. Also, I can't eat sugar any more.
Thanks to everybody's input, I'm now thinking cream cheese or ricotta with added sweetener (Splenda or xylitol). Maybe even my own homemade quark (milk clabbered with buttermilk and then strained to about half its original volume through cheesecloth), which is often quite mild.
gentlyferal at 4:02PM on 01/07/09
Good luck with that. Let us know how it turns out.
juliebugsmama at 4:06PM on 01/07/09
Maybe you could artificially sweeten evaporated milk?
Another vote for sweetened condensed milk. I love the stuff, but it's ungodly sweet, I give you that.
PerkyMac at 4:12PM on 01/07/09
Pumpkin pie calls for evaporated milk not condensed. That is not the same thing.
If you use a cheese product instead of the condensed product the outcome will be cheesy, obviously. Buttermilk to me would be an alternative but it will be minus the sweet flavor and again the final product is going to be different.
I found this online http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,193,144167-242193,00.html
If it were me I might even use coconut milk if the recipe would support some coconut flavor.
JerzeeTomato at 6:06PM on 01/07/09
If you have no objection to the principle of milk + sugar + cooking, make a batch of dulce de leche which is caramelized condensed milk you make yourself. It would probably be a nice improvement to whatever you're making anyway. Alton Brown has a great recipe which I've used. Warning: Don't taste it out of the pan or you'll wind up having to make a whole second batch for your recipe.
therealchiffonade at 6:23PM on 01/07/09
I'd look for another recipe. In something like this, the sugar isn't just a sweetener, it also contributes to the structure of the end product.
You could probably reduce your own milk, but if you object to the flavor of the stuff in a can, you probably won't like the flavor of your reduced product, either.
So, you're really looking at swapping out two components -- the milk and the sugar. That's a lot to substitute without knowing what each contributes to the final product. You could try other ingredients and hope for the best, but it might be better to find a similar recipe where someone has already done the experimenting for you.
dbcurrie at 7:11PM on 01/07/09
Until I saw you recipe, I thought maybe Cream of Coconut might work -- it is thick and sweet. But it's also canned. And has added sugar. Not sure the coconut would work though -- it would change the flavor of your pie quite a bit.
You might be able to reduce milk and use a sugar alternative -- palm sugar or some other sweetener that you can tolerate But it would be a challenge to get the proportions right.
I think dbcurrie has the right idea -- find a recipe that doesn't use it.
kjgibson at 9:40PM on 01/07/09
what dbcurrie and kjgibson said.
cybercita at 10:48PM on 01/07/09
It is very hard to find a substitute for sweetened condensed milk. Especially in any recipe calling for some type of citrus juice, i.e. lemon or orange; the juices, when combined with the sweetened condensed milk, thickens the filling.
If it were me, I would find another recipe. I tend to bypass recipes that do not cater to my personal tastes. Just my most humble opinion.
lamora at 1:27AM on 01/08/09
Granted, these are the thoughts of the worst cook in the thread but it seems like your options are thus:
1. Make the recipe as is and hope that the condensed milk taste doesn't affect the deliciousness of the recipe.
2. Find another
OR
3. Substitute yogurt (what I might do) or perhaps sour cream, and take the chance it might work! What is the worst that can happen? So long as you don't make it for a holiday without testing it first and don't mind having to toss it, why not--keep an eye on things in case you need to adjust stuff.
Personally, the original recipe sounds VERY, actually overly sweet to my palate and I think that it might be improved by the sugar reduction.
Your experiment might be different but you might like it better--so long as you don't send an angry letter to the recipe's author about why it didn't come out, give it a go with a sub--I'd try something with a similar consistency with less sugar, since like dbcurrie said, the condensed milk is used for structure as well as flavor.
HeartofGlass at 6:10AM on 01/08/09
there are just some things that you will find it very hard to replicate at home and I thing sweetened condensed milk is probably one of them. It's not a staple at my house either, but for some things, I will buy it. I made Deliah's orange pie yesterday and it called for sweetened condensed milk, and I would happily purchase it again for that recipe. If its something you feel that strongly about, keep experimenting and please let us know how it comes out. I have to take a ton of pills to eat any dairy and would love to know how to make it myself from soy products. of course if I could do it myself i'd probably make that pie everyday and be big as a house in a month. :-S
huneybumper at 10:53AM on 01/08/09
A timely alternative to the recipe in the original post: the current issue of Fine Cooking has a recipe for an orange and brown-butter tart. It looks gorgeous - topped with slices of naval and blood oranges. The filling has no marcapone, rather a brown-butter pastry cream filling topped that is topped with sliced oranges. But it would make a good inspiration for developing an alternative version of the recipe that started this thread, sans condensed milk.
In fact, it occurs to me as a I type that you might try using pastry cream as a substitute for the sweetened condensed milk in original recipe. ??? Might worth a try just to see what you get.
kjgibson at 11:41PM on 01/09/09
You can make your own condensed, no sugar added milk by replacing sugar with Splenda. I've done this, even made dulce de leche for my diabetic in-laws. 1 qt milk, 1 1/2 c. Splenda, cook in heavy 2-3 qt saucepan over medium low heat stirring constantly until it reaches the desired consistency - about 45 min for condensed milk, 1 1/2 - 2 hrs for dulce de leche. If desired, add 1/2 tsp vanilla after removing from heat. Let cool before use. Can also be made with evaporated milk.
fairygothmother at 3:33PM on 05/19/09
I start eating a lot when I'm doing my college papers in my college days some time ago. And i just love to eat :)
PatriciaLark at 3:10PM on 10/29/09