Evaporated milk

Quite often as children we would have a simple dessert of stewed fruit and evaporated milk; it was always evaporated, never condensed milk – I didn’t come across that until I was an adult. We didn’t have a fridge, let alone a freezer, so tinned dehydrated milk was a useful stand-by and it also made a change from custard with desserts.

I was thinking of evaporated milk after a conversation about ‘fluff’… a jelly made with less water and then just as it was on the point of setting, evaporated milk, Carnation in our house, was whipped in. Tinned fruit could e added for extra yum, usually it was either mandarin oranges or strawberries.

I came across this little recipe leaflet, from Carnation:

Most women know that it’s fun to try new recipes – but sometimes everyone knows that a tried-and-trusted family favourite always wins in popularity.
It’s when you can add a ‘touch of luxury’ to those everyday dishes, that you’re giving your family the meals they’ll love coming home to.
Housewives who take pride in dishes they serve, say that cooking with Carnation, is like cooking with cream! Carnation blends with every ingredient and adds its own richness to them all. Do try it in these economical recipes. You’ll be delighted with the creamy, full flavoured improvement.

The family favourites which are mentioned are creamed rice pudding, baked custard pie, Carnation jelly (sounds like fluff to me!) brown and white blancmange, bread and butter pudding, and lemon pudding, and suggestions of adding it to creamed potatoes, white sauce and soup… hmmm, not sure of that!