The most bizarre coincidence happened to me the other day. I was at my mailbox when a car drove up and a man got out. He asked, “Are you the person who writes in the paper?”

            Immediately, my “it-wasn’t-me” antennae went up. Had I written something grossly incorrect? Was I about to receive a grammar lesson on starting sentences with “and,” or my rather loosey-goosey attitude towards punctuation?

            I must have looked quite stunned, perhaps even stupid, as I rather haltingly admitted that I did sometimes write about food in the Sounder.

            “Didn’t you write about evaporated milk once, and wanted to know how you could stop it from spilling?”

            Well, this taxed my memory. And then I recalled the story I had written two years ago, after Jordan and I took a boat trip to Desolation Sound. I had bemoaned the fact that it was impossible to keep the darned stuff from leaking all over the cooler once opened.

            He told me how to open the can, and then he was off; my first drive-by cooking tip! That was the bizarre part.

            The coincidence was that I had just decided to write a column on evaporated milk, all because I had almost had to bake a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.

             The recipe on the pumpkin filling called for evaporated milk, so off to the canned milk section I went, wondering if it was too late (or too obvious) to invite someone for dinner who really knew how to bake pies.

            I have never spent much time in the canned milk section. You see, I grew up in a household that never used canned milk, unless Mom was making one of those no-bake cheesecakes. I think the first time I actually saw anyone using it on a regular basis was a roommate I once had. She used it in her coffee. And then there was the aforementioned boat trip, and that was only because a neighbour told me that evaporated milk was a must for camping and boating.         

            As I was reaching for a can labelled “evaporated”, I saw “sweetened condensed.” The pie was sweet, right? I checked the pumpkin label three times to be sure that I was buying the correct stuff: evaporated. I also noted that there were both low-fat and fat-free evaporated milks. Yikes! I made a promise to myself to learn the difference between evaporated and condensed milk before my next baking episode, or next Thanksgiving, whichever came first.

            It all ended well; I found a guest who baked. To my son’s chagrin, I offered him the canned milk as a substitute for the cream I forgot to buy for his mashed potatoes.

            You might suspect that because I had narrowly escaped the tribulation of pie making, I would immediately forget my promise to research canned milk, but I needed to set it straight in my mind.

             Condensed milk is made by evaporation of either whole, low-fat, or skim milk. Sixty percent of the moisture is removed, to produce a creamy, nutrient-rich and somewhat sweet liquid. In the process, the natural sugars in milk are caramelized, producing that somewhat off-putting flavour and ecru colour that reminds me of baby formula.

            The method was developed in the late 1800’s in response to a need for milk that did not require refrigeration, had a long shelf-life, and was bacteria-free. It became a staple during the depression and war years; included in military rations, used on long sea voyages, and found in households, where the ice man might not showeth up for days.

            Because it is concentrated, the calcium, protein, fats, and other nutrients are increased per volume, making it very nutritious. Today, canned milk is also fortified with Vitamin D just as regular milk is.

            Both “evaporated” and “sweetened condensed” are condensed by evaporation. The convention is to call unsweetened condensed “evaporated” and condensed with added sugar, “sweetened condensed.” You won’t find anything labelled just “condensed.” Evaporated milk is sterilized in the can by high heat.  The added sugar—40-45%—in sweetened condensed controls bacterial growth without the need for the extra sterilization step.

            Both types of milk have specific uses, and cannot be substituted for each other. Sweetened condensed is used most often in sweets, especially in puddings and refrigerator cookies and bars.

             Evaporated is used in much the same way as cream. It is used in sauces, soups, desserts, and, diluted half-and-half with water, it can be used in many recipes as a substitute for milk. Most people find its cloying taste too unpleasant for drinking. It is a great cream substitute for anyone on a low-fat diet and makes lovely mashed potatoes. Because it does not curdle at high temperatures like cream, it works well for crock-pot cooking and chowders. Hmmm! I’m thinking next year’s chowder cook-off? On our trip, Jordan discovered that he liked it in his coffee, but then everything tastes better when you are sitting on a boat, watching the sun come up.

            I almost forgot. Here’s the advice the nice gentleman gave: pierce the top of the tin with only one small hole, not two as most would think. Then, when you need a shot of cream, simply squeeze the can. It is virtually spill-proof, even when tipped upside down in a cooler.