This Pantry Staple Is My Shortcut to Creamier Soups, Desserts, Mac and Cheese, and Extra

In Hong Kong, the place I lived till I used to be 14, evaporated milk is a necessary ingredient. At cha chaan tengs—Hong Kong-style diners—it is used to make Hong Kong milk tea, the town’s signature beverage of robust black tea and evaporated milk. Bakers incorporate the canned dairy into the fillings of Hong Kong-style egg tarts. Some cooks add it to scrambled eggs, and at dim sum parlors, it is a key ingredient for “ma lai go” (“Malay cake”), tender, fluffy sponge truffles steamed in bamboo baskets. 

I first encountered the ingredient as a baby, when my dad and mom ordered mango pudding—a basic Cantonese dessert—at a Chinese language restaurant. The jiggly candy got here with a tiny pitcher of evaporated milk, and my dad and mom instructed me to drizzle it throughout. The creaminess of the canned dairy complemented the mango’s tart, fruity notes, leading to a balanced chew that wasn’t too candy. After I received older and started cooking for myself, I began incorporating the ingredient into my very own cooking, too, utilizing it so as to add richness to drinks, sauces, stews, and desserts. 

In contrast to contemporary complete milk, which accommodates simply over 3% milk fats, evaporated milk usually accommodates 7.5 to 9% milk fats. It is made by decreasing milk till about 60% of the water has evaporated, abandoning a concentrated product that is shelf-stable as soon as cooled and canned, making it a sensible possibility in locations with restricted refrigeration. In Hong Kong, milk wasn’t a daily a part of the native weight loss program till the territory turned a British colony within the 1840s. And even as soon as milk was launched—with no native dairy farms and little entry to refrigeration—contemporary milk was a luxurious, so individuals turned as a substitute to evaporated milk, which was launched within the Nineteen Twenties and have become more and more common within the Nineteen Forties.

Right now, evaporated milk is a staple in my pantry. A splash rounds out the tannins in black tea and enhances the roasted flavors of hojicha, a toasted inexperienced tea. It is the key to easy, velvety cheese sauces, and I exploit it to make my household’s favourite gooey stovetop macaroni and cheese. It provides soups and stews further physique—like Critical Eats contributor Fatima Khawaja, I make my rooster and dumplings with evaporated milk, which makes the meal even richer and extra comforting.

And, in fact, we will not neglect in regards to the desserts: I like utilizing evaporated milk to make leche flan (Filipino baked custard), chewy New England-style ice cream, and tres leches cake. It might be a humble can of milk, nevertheless it’s mighty—and with so many scrumptious methods to make use of it in on a regular basis meals and special day dishes, you may see why I by no means go away the shop with out it.