• sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    Well yeah, powdered milk is often twice as expensive as fresh milk, so no wonder it’s relatively obscure here. Whole milk at Costco is ~$6.50 for two gallons ($3.50-4/gallon at the grocery store), the same quantity of Walmart brand powdered whole milk is $12.50 (makes 8 quarts, or 2 gallons). Non-fat milk is more reasonable (~$8.50 at Walmart for 2 gal), but still more expensive than liquid milk (~$5.50 at Costco for 2 gal; ~$3-3.50 at the grocery store per gal).

    It makes no sense. Liquid milk needs to be kept cold in transit (we don’t ultra-pasteurize), is heavy, and needs to be sold within 2 weeks or so. Surely it’s cheaper to dehydrate it at the source and just ship the powdered product…

    And yeah, powdered eggs is an atrocity. It’s also way more expensive (like ~$0.60/egg vs ~$0.18/egg at Costco, or $0.19/egg at Walmart), and they taste so much worse, so there’s really no reason to buy them either. At least in my area, I can own chickens for less cost than buying powdered eggs (but buying fresh eggs is cheaper than raising chickens). It just makes no sense.

    The only reason to buy either powdered milk or powdered eggs in the US is for food storage.

    • acetanilide@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I recently saw a method for canning jiffy muffins.

      You take the jiffy mix, some powdered egg, and some powdered milk, and put it in a jar. It keeps forever or something, probably.

      When you’re ready to make the muffins, you just add water.

      Why that is easier than keeping a few boxes on hand, adding some milk, and cracking an egg, I do not know.

      • i_dont_want_to
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        10 months ago

        Interesting read on the subject. I personally like having a mix that is egg-free, one can purchase “just add water” mixes.

        …the fact was that fresh eggs produced superior cakes. Using complete mixes which included dried eggs resulted in cakes that stuck to the pan, had poor texture, had a shorter shelf life, and often tasted too strongly of eggs.

        https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/something-eggstra/