I didn’t even know powdered eggs existed, since I’ve never seen them in stores. Has anyone else seen them since the turn of the century? And are they any cheaper than just buying eggs?
Even the places I know that don’t use real eggs use frozen egg tubes (for boiled) or liquid eggs (for scrambled).
I keep it for pretty much the same. Sometimes I need my cup–or pot–of tea, and we’re low on milk and I’m under the weather or whatever. Not as good as real milk, but far, far better than “non-dairy creamer” or “coffee whitener”.
And then it’s just mixed with contaminated water anyway. It would probably be safer to just keep your own goats or cows.
Unpasturized milk can host TB, among other hardcore nasties. It’s a much bigger risk than sketchy water. And once you disinfect water, it keeps for a while, while even disinfected milk is still going to go bad quickly.
Keeping cows and goats would be nice, but around at around $400 for a cow and maybe $50 for a goat, they are out of the reach of the dollar-a-day crowd. Powdered milk is often sold in single serve packets to the very poor.
The ‘secret’ with drinking reconstituted powdered milk is to mix it up and let it sit for a decent amount of time – like overnight. It’s not wonderful even then, but cold and completely rehydrated makes quite a difference. (I grew up drinking the stuff, trust me.)
BTW, the dry milk comes in fat free AND non-fat free varieties.
I still keep it on hand all the time, for the ‘emergency’ uses everyone else has mentioned. It does cost more per quart than ‘liquid’ milk, but if you store the envelopes in your fridge, the stuff is basically immortal.
I bought a container of powdered buttermilk 3 years ago to make ranch dressing. I still have half the container in the refrigerator. Ya think it’s still o.k.?
Goats don’t get TB, and feeding them is free because they eat pretty much anything, vegetation-wise.
The whole Modernist idea seems to me to be about 65% “Because we can” and about 35% “better cooking techniques”.
Still, MCAH is a great cookbook, and I’m convinced isn’t as much of a straight-up book of recipes as it’s a book of techniques and concepts, and the recipes are there to illustrate the concepts and techniques, not the other way around like most cookbooks.
Yeah, I don’t think anyone actually needs a Pacojet, for instance. But it sure was fascinating to read about.
Pardon the early premature partial post if it happened.
That’s all the milk I buy. I pour some on my raisin bran and add blueberries (whole) or diced tropical fruit mix (canned), then soak it down with thrice-filtered water from my Britta countertop tank, then use the last couple of the brew to wash down my a.m. bunch of pills. Never tried powdered eggs unless the Navy might have scrambled some.
I buy powdered milk for the rare occasions when I am baking or using a recipe that calls for it (I don’t bake much). I didn’t know that there was powdered buttermilk, and now that I do, I will make cornbread more often.
No powdered eggs, though.
IIRC, and this is a worse problem with cows, both of them (and humans) can get a very close relative to TB, Mycobacterium bovis, which can be nasty.
And even goats are a luxury to some people. IIRC, it is, after all, what programs such as Heifer Int. use as part of their charities. That goat is the family’s piggy bank. If having a goat was something so cheap, they wouldn’t be given away as money makers.
I’ve had powedered milk in my childhood because during hurricane season, they usually bought a tin in case one came and knocked off electricity. After the season was over, I would drink it by mixing the powder with much less water than what it called for. 
Nice yummy treat for me!
I still see it at the local grocery stores, Klim brand.
Because of this thread, I went and bought some powdered eggs. This type of powdered egg is a little different than what I’ve used previously. These are dehydrated eggs that haven’t been cooked already, whereas…other brands are cooked and then dehydrated.
Google: OvaEasy Whole Egg Crystal Powdered Eggs
or
what I bought.
These are ***no ***deal, approximately twice the price of fresh eggs. But I’m thinking of the possibilities of camp cooking. (Not that I camp anymore. Or even eat, for that matter. Gawd, this ignorance fighting sure isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.)
When my daughter got married last summer, we made up a ungodly amount of tiny jars of popcorn seasoning, and one ingredient we bought for that was powdered cheese. Very handy, as you could mix it up with other seasonings and it did not need to be refrigerated, unlike parmesan. A little pricey, but very tasty.
A big thanks to those who mentioned using dry milk as a thickener. The other night, I made some mac & cheese that turned out too thin.
I bought this powdered water…
…
…now I don’t know what to add.
-Steven Wright
Turns out he was onto something, but hardly a grocery item.
I imagine powdered eggs still play a significant role in all-you-can-eat breakfast buffets, no?