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Sunday, June 27, 2010

Milk Taste Test

I decided to find out once and for all which powdered milk my family likes best. I didn't realize how important this was until we started living off food storage. I thought (naively) that if there was nothing else to drink, they would drink it. Wrong. Before we started food storage, my family was drinking 5 gallons of milk a week. On powdered milk it dropped down to less than one gallon per week, and most of that was used in cooking rather than for drinking. So I learned 2 important lessons:

1. People will not eat or drink something just because that's all there is.
2. Don't count on powdered milk for giving your family their needed calcium intake.

But I digress. I have stored only real powdered milk. I purposely stayed away from milk substitutes since they don't have the same nutritional value as real milk. I figured my family would need those nutrients if they were actually living off food storage. What I failed to realize was, it doesn't matter how nutritional the milk is if no one will drink it. :)

So I planned a blind taste test to see which milk my family liked best. I even used store bought milk as one of the testers just to see what would happen :) Obviously I couldn't try every brand out there but I tried to pick some of the more popular ones. They included:

1. Morning Moo's
2. Emergency Essentials
3. Church cannery milk
4. Thrive
5. Store bought milk

I also tried 3 brands of chocolate milk which is one way to get your family to actually drink milk:

1. Honeyville Grain
2. Thrive
3. Morning Moo's

The results were interesting. First of all we had 8 taste testers in my family but didn't count the votes of the 3 year old since he denounced all the cups of white milk as "Yucky!!" and declared all of the chocolate milks "Yummy!" :)

Everyone picked their #1 and #2 favorites. Here are the taste test results in order of number of votes received either as #1 or #2:

1. Morning Moo's - 5 votes
2. Emergency Essentials - 3 votes
3. Thrive - 3 votes
4. Store bought milk - 2 votes
5. Church Cannery - 1 vote

So guess which milk I have stored 400 POUNDS of?

Yep.

The cannery. :(

The good news is, it doesn't matter when baking what you use, it's only when drinking it straight that it becomes a problem. So, my plan is to replace the cannery milk with Morning Moo's as we use it up. I will still keep plenty of cannery milk in my storage because it is real powdered milk, rather than a milk substitute, so I still want it for baking. But for drinking, you have to go with the milk your family will actually drink.

Isn't it interesting that the store bought milk only got 2 votes? Guess that's what happens when you are living off food storage. Your idea of what is normal tasting begins to shift.

For the chocolate milk we just voted on our favorite:

1. Honeyville Grain - 3 votes
2. Thrive - 3 votes
3. Morning moos - 1 vote

I got shot down on this one since my favorite was actually the Morning Moos. Oh well, guess we'll have to go with majority rules on this one. I don't drink much chocolate milk anyway.

So you can buy Morning Moo's online but I find that Costco often carries it as well. My Costco was having a blow out sale on it just before we started living on food storage so I bought a whole 5 gallon bucket.

I can't say if that is the milk your family will like best (although I found another blog that did a similar test to mine and came out with almost exactly the same results), but it can at least give you a starting point.

One lesson I have learned from all of this is to NEVER, EVER store food you have not tried. I know it's so tempting. Food storage can be expensive and you don't want to waste a whole can just trying it out, but you could be really sorry if you don't. Some of the food I was storing turned out to be completely inedible (like Honeyville Grain Butter) and I had to throw it all in the trash. Now THAT is expensive.

Also, don't believe the myth that if a person is hungry enough, they will eat it. It's absolutely not true. Just ask my 3 year old. :)

Finally just a heads up that I will be taking a long anticipated trip to Nauvoo and will not be able to blog the next few weeks. I'm thinking if I get really lucky though, I might just come across an old fashioned butter churner, or cheese press while I'm there!

12 comments:

  1. LOL at your 3-yr-old's vote. I've found we don't like the cannery milk as much as boxes of powdered milk I've bought in the regular grocery store. Although, I think that might just be the instant / non-instant difference??

    Have fun in Nauvoo!

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  2. I posted and it is not here. I was raised in Northern Cali. Loomis, North of Sacramento. I am possilby going to Nauvoo too when are you going. Maybe I can meet you.

    Melissa
    www.kidsandcanningjars.blogspot.com

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  3. Melissa,

    Hey that would be so much fun! I know right where Loomis is. I grew up in Cameron Park but now I live in Sacramento just right on the border of Elk Grove.

    We are leaving for Nauvoo on Monday. We are staying in the Gallery House just 4 blocks down from the Temple.

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  4. Oh my goodness I will be there monday tuesday a and maybe sunday. Are you flying or driving? here is my cell phone # I would love to meet you.

    801-577-9991

    Melissa

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  5. What a freaky coincidence! The only day I could meet you though would be Sunday because we are driving out and it will take us 3 days to get there so we won't be arriving until Wednesday evening.

    Let me give you my cell too: 916-799-8847

    Hope to see you!

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  6. I hope your trip is going good! I am home, I was checking to see if you had posted since you have been home. Here is my cell phone, 281-713-5017 I had my hubbies number cross country.

    Melissa

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  7. I am so excited that I found your blog through facebook on food storage made easy and loving what you have so far! My blog was featured by them a few weeks back. I got started with food storage 2 years ago through their site and have learned so much since I also live in Elk Grove and in the Sacramento Stake. I would love to meet you, in fact I was wondering if you would be willing to teach a R.S. class? You can reach me at
    nataliegessell@gmail.com

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  8. Hey Natalie! I can't believe you are so close, that is great! We actually fall into Elk Grove stake but I probably know people you know.

    I'm teaching a class in August at the Four Seasons building for someone else who asked me to. I would be happy to duplicate it for your ward.

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  9. Do you know which ward you are teaching (3rd/4th) and what date and time? We meet at the Seasons bldg. I can contact the ward and ask them if our ward can join them. Thanks!

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  10. It's for the Laguna Creek 3rd ward. Pam is in charge and it's August 26th at 6:30pm. It would be great if it was combined, then I would only have to teach it once :)

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  11. I have read that under starvation situations, like pow and concentration camp kind of starvation, people will eat anything. But under regular and even dire situations, where you are not starving, people will go hungry rather than eat things they don't like. This goes double for kids, the elderly and the sick.

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    Replies
    1. Totally true.

      I've spoken to Germans who were starving during WWII. They ate boiled cow udders. Also, they boiled leather belts for soup flavoring, etc.

      After sixty years of drinking milk, and two years studying how bad it is for humans (Read the China Study, etc.), I have quit drinking milk. I feel much better since I stopped drinking it.

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