Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Powdered milk

I love salt. I think salt is my favorite seasoning. Other than hot sauce. When I was growing up my mom had these salt and pepper shakers that were a little man and woman. The man was the salt and the woman was the pepper. My mom said "Man is the salt of the earth." Confusing. Was she basing that on these salt and pepper shakers?

Woman is the pepper of the earth, I thought. Nobody took the time to explain things to me when I was a kid. So I just took what people said and made my own sense out of it. Salt goes well on just about everthing except cereal. I think that's why they put sugar in bowl and salt in a shaker. If they put sugar in a shaker and then put a big S on it people might still think it was salt. We just can't take that kind of a chance with our food.

One time when I was a kid, I went camping with my family and my aunt, uncle and my cousins. It was a beautiful place along the LOCHSA RIVER in Idaho. We were in a big tent. You could hear the river running all night and it was such a wonderful thing. There is nothing like camping next to a river like that in the woods. The smell and the sound. My uncle was stationed at the Powell Ranger Station.

In the morning we got up and each of us kids got a bowl of cereal. Well my aunt had the sugar and salt in little containers that were much the same. They weren't marked but were in different colored containers. I made the mistake of putting salt on my cereal. Of course my cousins all knew the difference and they all laughed at me. Ha ha ha. I was the only boy. The salt of the earth I thought. They did allow me to get another bowl but it was embarrassing. Throwing out the cereal was such a sin. I should have tasted it first I guess. My cousins weren't allowed sugar on their cereal and they always had powdered milk. My parents were pretty strict however. We only ate when it was meal time. We never got anything to snack on. Now and then we would get a cookie but that was it.

Have you ever had powdered milk? It isn't like regular milk. More like white water. I wonder if there is salt in it?

9 comments:

Megan said...

My granny use to mix hot chocolate mix and powdered milk together. It tasted yummy that way. I knew a kid in grade school that drank powered milk, don't know why he had to, but it looked nasty. However, I am not a milk fan at all. Or a salt fan for that matter.

GrewUpRural said...

I had to drink powdered milk when I was younger. It was cheaper than real milk. I miss drinking real milk. I only use salt for french fries that I bake.

don said...

From what I remember it tasted wierd, but you get used to it. My cousins always drank it. When we went to their house, my aunt would mix up a big pitcher of it for breakfast. One thing about it, it keeps forever and you just mix it with water.

don said...

Yes, I imagine it was cheaper than regular milk and that was probably why they had it. That and they had all of this food stored in the basement.

I only drink skim milk now. I have a couple of kinds of sea salt for cooking.

Diane Lowe said...

My mom used to make hot cocoa mix with powdered milk and creamer. We would also use powdered milk to make "almond jello". It's an Asian dessert; you basically mix up some powdered milk, add sugar, knox gelatin and almond flavoring and then chill it. I get almond steamers at cafés now and it reminds me of unset almond jello.

I agree that powdered milk on its own tastes weird, even for skim milk. I drink organic milk, the "reduced fat" variety. I grew up drinking whole milk, and really didn't like the 2% milk they would serve in schools.

I like salt too. It's a valuable flavor enhancer. I'm also a big fan of garlic, paprika and crushed red pepper.

don said...

Almond jello sounds good.

Anonymous said...

Here's something fun to do with salt for a nice variation;

Pour about three or four tablespoons of Kosher salt into a mortar. Add some fresh Rosemary and some fresh lemon zest. Grind it thoroughly with the pestle and then sift it through a screen. It is fantastic on home-made french fries.

If you put it in a small jar, it will last for a month or two (unless you use it all up by then).

don said...

Grewuprural might be interested in putting Curt's lemon zest Rosemary salt on her fries that she bakes.

GrewUpRural said...

Curt's suggestion sounds quite good for fries and other items. Thanks!