Dairy
Evaporated milk
Also called unsweetened condensed milk
Milk cooked down until much of the water is gone, then canned unsweetened. Suspiro uses it for cooked-milk body. It is not sweetened condensed milk — that tin is loaded with sugar and will wreck the set if you swap them.
Origin
Nineteenth-century canned dairy, the same moment as condensed milk. Latin American puddings adopted the unsweetened tin as pantry cream.
Flavour
Cooked milk, slightly caramel, not as sweet as cream. An old tin can taste metallic. There is no vanilla in it unless you add some.
How it is made
Milk is evaporated under heat and vacuum, then sterilised in the can. Nothing sweet is added. 'Light' versions are further skimmed.
How to use it
Whisk it into a suspiro or manjar base as you would cream — it is already concentrated, so taste before you reduce it further. If a recipe names condensed milk, do not open this tin and add sugar by eye; the pudding will slump. Fresh milk can stand in if you simmer it down yourself, slowly, without scorching. Salt and vanilla stop the cooked-milk taste going flat.
Storage
Cupboard until open, then fridge in a jar, not the tin. Shake before pouring; solids settle.
Recipes using it
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