I’ve seen the smaller containers, semi-perfect for putting in a kid/adult lunch box. The better varieties are UHT treated and sealed, and that’s pretty much it, good for 6ish months last time I checked.
I almost got a 6 pack of the Horizon brand last time I was at the store for those “I need milk for a sauce” but decided against it.
It’s nothing but milk and Vitamin D, so nothing wrong with it, though (perhaps my imagination) I can faintly taste the “packaging” but no more so than from a waked 1/2 gallon container anyway.
Isn’t it heavily processed with preservatives to make it shelf stable?
I could buy a quart of milk and leave it on the kitchen counter. It wouldn’t be safe to drink three days later. It would curdle within 5 days. Gas in the jug would swell up and explode in a couple weeks.
It’s just ultra pasturized, meaning heated to a higher temperature than regular milk. That’s what enables its extended preservation. That’s the “heavy processing” you’re worried about. It’s nothing.
I live rural, can’t always be dashing off to town to buy fresh milk (although that’s my preference and I usually have it), so I keep a few boxes of the UHT milk around. It only lasts a few months, so I have to be sure and rotate my stock. You do need to refrigerate it after you open it.
I can taste a difference, but it is slight. Unlike evaporated milk which I detest, I don’t mind the difference in taste. I keep it in the fridge, use it in coffee, put it on cereal and in baking and whatever.
Just buy a carton and use it like any other milk. Only you can say whether the taste difference is different enough to make it not appealing to you.
It’s called UHT milk because the UHT stands for ‘ultra high temperature’. That’s the only difference between it and the regular pasturized milk you’re used to.
I’m sorry, I should have spelled out UHT or otherwise explained when I mentioned it upthread. But I did specify it was just sealed, sterilized UHT milk with Vitamin D and nothing else.
(and the “waked” was supposed to be waxed/treated container before fat fingering, but again, to me, no different than any UHT milk in a carton)
Condensed Milk is pretty great in cooking. Powdered Milk goes great in coffee (why use “whitener”? What even is that?). These are great shelf stable milk products.
There aren’t any added chemicals/preservatives in it. It is made shelf stable by ultra pasteurization (high heat for a prescribed length of time). Regular milk is pasteurized alway. To me it tastes the same as refrigerated milk bought from the cold case at the store. And of course you can drink it cold-I usually don’t bother, YMMV.
If I open a quart size carton of shelf stable milk once it’s opened it needs to be in the refrigerator.
Aspenglow said everything I was going to say, so I’ll just add that unless you drink it straight out of the carton, the slight difference in taste will most likely disappear into whatever it’s poured onto or into.
I’ve been buying ultra-pasteurized milk lately. It’s a bit different from the UHT milk that doesn’t need to be refrigerated until it’s opened. The ultra-pasteurized milk needs to be refrigerated constantly but has a long best by life, usually six weeks or more. Because I go out of town for weeks at a time, I appreciate that I can return and this stuff is still good.
Depending on the producer it can have some mild “cooked” taste notes when consumed by itself, due to the UHT process but yes, it is nutritionally and culinarily just that, milk.
Here in PR it is very popular, due to its usefulness in the face of hurricane season and the power and supply chain interruptions involved.
