What's skim milk good for?

September 7, 2009 2:42 PM

Skim Milk: Useless or mostly useless?

During a round of somewhat distracted shopping, I accidentally came home with a half-gallon of skim milk rather than the regular kind! Drat! I purchased the milk to use as an ingredient, primarily in waffles. However, the batch of waffles I made with the skim was pitiful - no fluff or firmness to them at all.

I tried dipping some cookies in a little bit of it and also tried it with a bit of granola - in these cases, the skim milk was somewhat functional, but the whole enterprise was hobbled by the fact I just plain don't like the taste of the stuff.

So, I've got most of a half gallon left to use, and I'm wondering what to do with it, as using it as a waffle ingredient, as originally planned, didn't work and drinking it straight is no good. Are there any recipes that call for skim milk specifically? What might I do with this stuff that plays to skim milk's strengths? Does skim milk have any strengths?

posted by EatTheWeak to food & drink (26 comments total)

buy a pint of cream. Mix the pint of cream into your skim milk and use it as planned.
posted by crush-onastick at 2:46 PM on September 7 [1 favorite]

I find it behaves different in cereal. Not necessarily better or worse, just... different. Hey, if it didn't really soggy up your cookie, it might be useful for cereals that go limp especially quickly, like flakes.
posted by Doctor Suarez at 2:47 PM on September 7

Skim milk and strength? It's strange to see those two concepts in the same sentence.

In your position, I'd just eat the loss (no pun intended) and dump the stuff down the drain. Either that or add in some powdered milk to bring it up to the level of whole milk/2%/whatever quality you normally get.
posted by LOLAttorney2009 at 2:48 PM on September 7

With some cream and this helpful table, you should be all set.
posted by Aizkolari at 2:49 PM on September 7 [1 favorite]

Hmm. Its all we use at our house, so I am a little floored by the question. Cereal, drinking, dunking, whatever.
4% milk tastes like cream to me

If you are not planning to switch over there is little use in advising you on how to adjust to the taste.

It should do well in pancakes. Waffles require a certain crispiness that pancakes do not. I grew up on sour milk pancakes (somewhat akin to buttermilk pancakes.) So if you wait a week you could try that!
posted by SLC Mom at 2:56 PM on September 7

Turn it into buttermilk/sourmilk.
posted by The Whelk at 3:02 PM on September 7

What is skim milk better than other milks for? Weight management. That's it. Nothing tastes better with skim milk than with milk that contains milkfat, as the entire benefit of skim is the calorie savings that comes from skimming out the fat.

That being said, chocolate skim milk can taste very similar to chocolate 2% with enough chocolate syrup. If you have a bottle of Hersheys around, go to it.
posted by eschatfische at 3:19 PM on September 7

Skim milk freezes better and thaws out more easily than richer milks. I drink skim milk all the time so I'm a little partial [rather get my calories elsewhere and now I'm just used to it] so you might want to keep it handy as "emergency milk" when you're all out and it's the middle of the night and/or a power failure or something. It's true, the lack of fat will make it nowhere near as good for baked goods. That said, it's a little bit richer for things like smoothies than water is, so you can add it to yogurt/fruit/protein powder smoothies and the slightly lighter consistency will probably be a bonus not a detraction.
posted by jessamyn at 3:20 PM on September 7 [1 favorite]

Can you make pudding with it? That should use up a good amount of milk and I'm guessing (but only guessing) that using skim instead of regular won't affect the consistency too much.
posted by platinum at 3:21 PM on September 7

Perhaps even better than pancakes might be crepes. I always use this recipe which requires you to use half milk, half water. Just use the skim instead!
posted by Kirjava at 3:21 PM on September 7

What is skim milk better than other milks for? Weight management. That's it. Nothing tastes better with skim milk than with milk that contains milkfat, as the entire benefit of skim is the calorie savings that comes from skimming out the fat.

Yeah, I drink nothing but skim milk for the most part, and now any milk that isn't skim tastes weird to me. But I think that's just what I've gotten used to. I can't really think of a reason you'd use it other than because you are trying to get more protein with less saturated fat.

So, um...cook with it? Make some pancakes? I did that this morning in fact--if you use enough butter and/or eggs you won't be able to tell the difference.
posted by dubitable at 3:23 PM on September 7

An aside...Commercial dairies remove the fat from milk, creating skim milk, at the start of the process. Later, they re-introduce fat at the correct percentages in order to produce 2% and whole milk.

As far a skim goes, you can do a lot with it. We cook with it in recipes that call for a small amount of milk. Anything calling for milk as a main ingredient, though, gets whole milk. In a pinch, I will mix a little half-n-half into skim when I need something with more body...like when I make a latte at home.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:26 PM on September 7

I haven't tried the conversion table linked above, but I have "fattened up" 1% adding half-and-half by taste and found it satisfactory.

Perhaps mix only as needed or make up a few small portions and shake well before using every time, as I would expect the combination not to remain emulsified as long as the finished product coming out of a homogenization machine would -- just guessing.

If you just want to use it up ASAP and move on with your life, I'd definitely go with the buttermilk route...the simple process of souring the milk with the appropriate amount of vinegar should thicken it up and make it more acceptable for pancakes and biscuits, maybe even waffles. Or just marinade some chicken in it prior to frying / "oven frying."
posted by aydeejones at 3:30 PM on September 7

Skim milk makes everything taste "blah"-- from pancakes to cereal. But I will tolerate it-- why? Because there's no fat in it. (And: it's only breakfast. I'm not a breakfast person. I don't even even drink coffee.)

It's called a "trade-off". You can't get something for nothing.

Theres no magical why to make skim milk as utilitarian and wholesome and tasty as whole milk.
posted by Zambrano at 3:44 PM on September 7

magical way..etc
posted by Zambrano at 3:45 PM on September 7

Alton Brown says to make cottage cheese!
posted by Simon Barclay at 3:58 PM on September 7

Make more waffles. Just add melted butter to the mix.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 3:58 PM on September 7

Either mix some cream back in it, or do something else with it. How about making smoothies? Throw it in a blender with some ice cubes and some fruit and whatever else you like in smoothies. Or make some chowder- clam, corn, what have you. Make oatmeal with it?

The suggestion to make chocolate milk with it is a good one too.
posted by ambrosia at 4:27 PM on September 7

Another reason for using skim milk is that the fat in regular milk may be difficult for some people to digest. They may even mistakenly think that they are lactose intolerant.
posted by mareli at 5:59 PM on September 7

I recommend drinking it. It's more refreshing than non-skim milk.
posted by Jaltcoh at 6:31 PM on September 7

Skim milk and strength? It's strange to see those two concepts in the same sentence.

As it happens, the dirty little secret in the body-building business is that skim milk is about as effective as protein shakes for bulking up muscle, and a whole lot cheaper.
posted by -harlequin- at 7:59 PM on September 7

I'm going to sound like a complete freak and mention that I heavily dilute skim milk, then chill it to "mind-numbingly cold" level. Drink it after working out, mowing the lawn, etc. It is amazingly refreshing in those situations.
posted by adipocere at 8:18 PM on September 7

As it happens, the dirty little secret in the body-building business is that skim milk is about as effective as protein shakes for bulking up muscle, and a whole lot cheaper.

I don't know about that. People who want to gain mass drink whole milk because it's calorically dense (150 cal/cup) and reasonably high in protein (8g/cup), so it's good for creating an easy caloric surplus. Skim milk only has 80 calories in a cup, so it makes little sense for weight gain. For comparison, a 30g scoop of whey powder contains 24g of protein. But body-builders do some silly things.
posted by ludwig_van at 9:14 PM on September 7

Skim milk foams up better than milk with fat in it, for lattes and the like. So if you've got a milk steamer and you like a lot of foam...
posted by lore at 9:50 PM on September 7

Make it into "buttermilk" and use it for pancakes?
posted by A Terrible Llama at 5:09 AM on September 8

Or....instead of trying to make it do a better job as milk, treat it as water: add a little chicken bouillon to it and stir it into mashed potatoes, or as a base for soup?
posted by A Terrible Llama at 5:12 AM on September 8